BX8495; 
.W323 W5 

1856 



THE LIFE 



OF 



REV. RICHARD WATSOK 

AUTHOR OF THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTES, DICTIONARY, 
EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPELS, E^C. 



BY STEPHEN B. WICKENS. 



"He -was a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; 
an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures; a scribe well 
instructed in the*^CS^^'^^ertaining to the kingdom of God." 

FOURTH EDITION. 



PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS. 

STINDAY-SCnOOL TH^ION, 200 ilULBEREY-STEEET. 

1856. 



\ H» "fe^j 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by 
G. Lane, &. P. P. Sandfoed, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the Southern District of New-York. 

GIFT 
BBRTRAM SiHTM 

OCT 9 ^ 



PREFACE 



Among the many eminent " ministers of 
the New Testament," whose lives have 
adorned, and whose writings have edified, 
the Christian church, in the present age, 
few have been more distinguished than the 
subject of this memoir. 

The Life of Mr. Watson, as written by the 
Rev. Thomas Jackson, is one of the most 
interesting and instructive books of the kind ; 
but its size and price are serious objections 
to those persons who want either the money 
to purchase, or the time to read, large books. 
For the benefit of such individuals, and espe- 
cially the teachers and elder scholars of our 
sabbath schools, the following sketch of Mr. 
Watson's life has been prepared. It will be 
found to embrace not only all the prominent 
incidents related in Mr. Jackson's larger 
work, from which it has been chiefly com- 



4 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

piled, but also several interesting particulars 
obtained from other sources ; especially from 
Dr. Bunting's Memorial of the late Rev. 
Richard Watson Dr. Alder's Funeral Ser- 
mon ; " Recollections of Rev. Richard Wat- 
son," by Rev. R. Newstead; and the London 
Methodist Magazines for several years. 

The perusal of this volume will, it is hoped, 
under the divine blessing, be instrumental in 
inducing not merely an admiration of the 
great and good man to whom it relates, but 
also, on the part of many, a determination to 
imitate his example, and '^be followers of 
him, even as he also was of Christ." 

S. B. W. 

New-York, Sept. 24, 1841. 



CONTENTS. 



Chap Page 

I. Mr. "Watson's birth, early life, and conversion . . 7 

II. Commencement of his ministry 28 

III. Leaves the Wesleyans and joins the Kilhamites 51 
rV. Returns to the Wesleyan body 80 

V. Formation of Missionary Societies 103 

VI. r\Ir. Watson's ministry at Wakefield and Hull 122 

VII. His ministry in the London circuits 142 

VIII His labours in behalf of the Missions, etc. 153 

IX. Mr. AVatson as Resident Missionary Secretary 184 

X. Mr. Watson as Resident Missionary Secretary' 209 

XI. His ministry at Manchester and London 227 

XII. His last days and triumphant death 257 

XIII Personal appearance, character, labours, &c. . 237 



REV. 



T FI E LIFE 

OP 

RICHARD WATSON, 



CHAPTER I. 

Mr. Watson's birth — Precarious state of iiis health — His early 
education — Quickness at learning — Character of his father — 
Death of one of his sisters— Fraternal conduct — Removal to Lin- 
coln — His education there — His passion for reading- — Ingenious 
artifice — He leaves school and is apprenticed to a carpenter — His 
personal appearance — Melancholy change in his character — Asso- 
ciates with the persecutors of God's people— Circumstance which 
led to his conversion — His fervent piety — Diligence in improving 
his time — Singular accidents — Begins to speaK: in public — Sudden 
death of his grandmother — Preaches his first sermon when only 
fifteen years old. 

Richard Watson was born at Barton-upon- 
Humber, in Lincolnshire, England, on the 22d 
February, 178L He was the seventh of a 
family of eighteen children, all of whom died at 
a very early age, except Richard, and three' 
sisters who survived him. 

During his infancy Richard's health was so 
exceedingly delicate that his death was almost 
daily expected ; and his parents, who were 
passionately fond of him, had scarcely the 
slightest hope that he would be spared to arrive 



8 



LIFE OF RICHARD Vv'ATSOX. 



at manhood. He was so extremely weak that 
his mother was for a long time compelled to 
nurse him on a pillow ; his feeble frame not 
being able to bear the slight pressure of its own 
weight upon her arm. 

When about three or four years old he was 
very subject to fits of drowsiness. If his mother 
permitted him to leave the house for the pur- 
pose of play, a messenger generally arrived in 
a short time, informing her that Richard was 
lying fast asleep on the threshold of some neigh- 
bouring house. This drowsiness, however, 
was only temporary, and was succeeded by 
unusual playfulness and vivacity. At a proper 
age he was, according to the custom of those 
days, placed under the tuition of a good old 
dame who kept a school within a few doors 
of his father's house. The earnest and vehe- 
ment manner in which he repeated the letters, 
when learning the alphabet, and beginning to 
form syllables, completely won the admiration 
of the old lady, who often exclaimed, " Bless 
thee ! thou wilt be a great man I" a predictioii 
which was amply verified, although the attain- 
ments of the pupil at that time could not be re- 
garded as any proof of future eminence. 

Having acquired the rudiments of education 
from his female teacher, Richard, when about 



LIFE OF RICHARD Vv'ATSOX. 



9 



six years of age, was sent to a school kept by 
the Rev. Mr. Barnett, a clerg}nnan of the Epis- 
copal Church, under whose efficient tuition he 
remained about two years. During the first 
quarter, his tutor, perceiving his aptness for 
learning, proposed that he should commence 
the study of Latin. With this suggestion his 
parents readily complied, although they had 
not previously designed giving their son 
any further education than was necessary to 
qualify him for some ordinary business. A 
higher Power, however, designed him for a 
more important employment, and one in which 
his extensive and permanent usefulness was 
greatly promoted by the sound classical train- 
ing he received in early life. He was at this 
time distinguished for his quickness in learning, 
so that he could freely indulge himself in play, 
which, considering the peculiar delicacy of his 
constitution, was necessary to his health, and 
yet be always prepared when the time arrived 
for repeating his lesson. His mother often re- 
minded him of the length and difficulty of his 
tasks, and the consequent necessity for appli- 
cation ; but his general reply was, " I can say 
my lesson." Still fearing that he was not suf- 
ficiently diligent in his studies, she made in- 
quiries of his tutor, who told her that she might 



10 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

dismiss all anxiety on that subject, as the 
improvement of her son was to him perfectly- 
satisfactory. 

Mr. Watson, sen., at this period generally 
attended the ministry of the Calvinistic dis- 
senters. He was a pious, upright man ; one 
who feared God, and loved the ordinances of 
his house. He maintained a strict discipline 
in his family. His children were trained up 
in a regular attendance upon the public worship 
of God ; were restrained from evil company, 
and from sabbath breaking; and were regularly 
instructed in the Assembly's catechism. His 
parental care and anxiety were not in vain. 
Though often called to follow his infant off- 
spring to the grave, in one of them, at least, he 
was favoured with a signal display of divine 
grace. He had a daughter who was a very 
remarkable example of early piety. She was 
a year or two older than her brother Richard ; 
and they were tenderly attached to each other. 
They were accustomed to sing hymns together ; 
and when they were left alone in the dark, she 
often told him that they need not be afraid, for 
that good angels, who sing hymns to God con- 
tinually, would always take care of them. She 
had strong presentiments of an early death, 
and frequently told the family that she should 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



11 



soon die, and go to heaven. Once, when the 
shoemaker brought her a pair of new shoes, 
instead of being elated, as is generally the 
case with children of her age, she told him 
that he might take them back again, for she 
should not live to wear them. Her anticipa- 
tions of an early death were realized. She 
died of the small pox, when her brother Rich- 
ard was about four years old ; and he was thus 
deprived of his favourite companion. 

Richard's mental improvement kept pace 
with his age. When he was not more than 
six years old, he read, with intense interest, 
sixteen or eighteen volumes of the " Universal 
History," which his father had purchased for 
him. He also practiced himself in drawing, 
in which he took great delight, and manifested 
more than ordinary taste. When he w^anted 
a fresh supply of brushes and colours, he gene- 
rally made application to his mother, whom he 
found, as other children have done under simi- 
lar circumstances, somewhat more accessible 
on such subjects than his father. It was his 
practice to repeat his Latin grammar to his 
eldest sister, till at length she became nearly 
as well acquainted with it as himself. At one 
time, being both confined to the house by sick- 
ness, they committed nearly the whole of Fene- 



12 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



Ion's Telemaclius to memory. This sister still 
speaks of his fraternal spirit and conduct in 
those times, and in subsequent life, with delight 
and affection. If any misunderstanding ever 
arose between them, it was generally terminated 
by repeating two verses of one of Dr. Watts's 
h\TTms for children, with which their minds 
were familiar : — 

" Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 
For God hath made them so ; 
Let bears and lions growl and fight, 
For 'tis their nature too. 

But, children, you should never let 

Such angry passions rise ; 
Your little hands were never made 

To tear each other's eyes." 

When Richard was about eight years old, 
the family removed from Barton to Lincoln, 
where his father, who was a saddler, carried 
on business for several years. On their arrival 
in tha4city, Richard was sent to a private semi- 
nary, kept by a person by the name of Hescott, 
till his parents should be able to procure his 
admission into the free grammar school. At 
this school he does not appear to have been 
distinguished either for his application or his 
proficiency. His handwriting was not good, 
and, indeed, he was never ambitious to excel 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



13 



in that useful art. He made amends, however, 
in some degree, by the superiority of his read- 
ino\ In this he w^as proposed as an example 
to the whole school ; and it became a common 
remark among the boys, — " Dick Watson will 
make a capital parson, he is such a good 
reader." 

After remaining at Mr. Hescott's seminary 
about two years, Richard was removed to the 
grammar school at Lincoln, where his progress 
in learning was highly satisfactory to his tutors. 
He read Cesar, Virgil, Horace, and some of 
the orations and epistles of Cicero, with Homer 
and Xenophon. This course of study, which 
was pursued without any specific object in 
view, afterAvard proved to be of incalculable 
advantage to him. 

In connection with his classical studies, he 
cherished a taste for general literature and 
knowledge. His father purchased for him a 
history of England, in four folio volumes, which 
he read with great avidity. So fixed was his 
attention, that when he sat, as he frequently 
did, with one of these volumes on his knee, he 
appeared to suffer no interruption from the con- 
versation and bustle of the family. Finding the 
leisure which he could command during the 
day insufficient to satisfy his thirst for informa- 



14 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



tion, he requested permission to sit up all night 
to peruse his favourite work. This request 
was, of course, denied by his parents, for rea- 
sons which he was then unable to appreciate ; 
and he was, in consequence, greatly disap- 
pointed. At last he debased the following ex- 
pedient to secure his purpose. He concealed 
the iron bar which fastened the shutters of the 
store ; and when at night this necessary article 
of security was wanting, he affected to sympa- 
thize with the family in the loss they had sus- 
tained, and suggesting that it would be unsafe 
to leave the property in the store exposed to 
depredation, he recommended that they should 
retire to sleep, and he would sit up all night to 
prevent the intrusion of thieves. The fraud 
w^as not discovered till some time afterward. 
This ingenious artifice shows his passion for 
reading, but is not to be commended. Decep- 
tion, under any circumstances, is highly repre- 
hensible, and especially so when practised by 
children upon their parents. 

On his removal to Lincoln, Mr. Watson, sen., 
had at first attended the chapel belonging to 
Lady Huntingdon's connection, but he after- 
ward united himself with the Methodists. His 
family were accustomed to accompany him to 
the chapels of these denominations : but it does 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOxV. 



15 



not appear that his son gave any indications 
of piety at this period of his life. He was dil- 
igent in his studies, fond of play, full of ani- 
mation, possessed a ready wit, and gave strik- 
ing proofs of a strong and determined mind ; 
but the solemn truths of religion seem to have 
neither engaged his attention, nor affected his 
heart. 

As his parents had not the means to educate 
him for a learned profession, it became neces- 
sary, when he arrived at the age of fourteen 
years, that he should be taught some business 
as a means of honourable subsistence. Prefer- 
ring, as more manly and becoming, the active 
and laborious emplo}Tiient of a mechanic, to 
the comparatively indolent life of a storekeeper, 
he was, at his own desire, apprenticed for the 
term of seven years to Mr. Wm. Bescoby, a car- 
penter and joiner, whose workshop was not far 
distant from his father's house ; and, as his 
health was delicate, it was arranged that he 
should reside with his parents. 

At this time his appearance was very singu- 
lar. Though only fourteen years of age, he 
had attained his full stature, which was six 
feet two inches ; his hair was lank, and of a 
deep black ; his countenance was that of a 
mere boy, and his manners were unformed. 



16 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



His extraordinary height was the more re- 
markable, as both his parents were considerably 
below the middle stature. 

After the commencement of his apprentice- 
ship, his general spirit and conduct underwent 
a change for the worse. He became less stu- 
dious and thoughtful, and entertained an un- 
bounded love of mischief. Near his father's 
house there lived a Methodist shoemaker ; a 
man in very humble circumstances, but distin- 
guished for his deep piety and active zeal. 
This poor man having once punished Richard 
in the chapel for indecorous behaviour, became 
an object of almost constant jest with the 
thoughtless youth. A habit of treating religious 
persons with ridicule, generally prepares the 
way for greater evils ; and the contempt shown 
for the shoemaker was but the prelude to acts 
of direct hostility to the pious associates of that 
good man. The only road leading to the Metho- 
dist chapel in Lincoln lay by the side of the ca- 
nal ; and for several years a number of wicked 
men and boys were accustomed, especially in 
the winter evenings, to assemble on the opposite 
side of the canal, for the purpose of insulting and 
annoying the congregation as they passed to 
and fro from their place of worship. Richard 
was, doubtless, by his love of sport, rather than 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



17 



by any feeling of hostility to religion, unhap- 
pily led to connect himself with the persons 
who were concerned in these practices. Dis- 
regarding the example and authority of his pa- 
rents, he took his stand on the side of the canal 
opposite to that on which the chapel stood, and 
joined with the profane rabble in pelting the 
worshippers of God with whom his father was 
united in Christian fellowship. Sometimes he 
also went to the chapel to disturb the congrega- 
tion and the preacher during the time of divine 
service. His father was pained to see such a 
want of pious feeling in one so young, and who 
had been religiously educated ; but the heart 
was "hardened through the deceitfulness of 
sin," and for a time remonstrance was unavail- 
ing. The misguided youth had no idea of hap- 
piness, except in levity and frolic, and in the 
company of persons of similar tastes and pur- 
suits. Considering the manner in which he 
began, thus early in life, to neglect the house 
of God, profane the sabbath, associate with evil 
company, and to ridicule sacred things, the an- 
ticipations of his friends respecting his future 
character and habits were very discouraging. 
His own opinion Avas, that had he not at this 
time been arrested by au unseen hand, he would 
have become one of the most wicked among 
2 



18 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

his comrades. His native energy of mind 
would not allow him to rest in mediocrity. He 
must be eminent either in good or evil ; and 
now, having entered upon a downward course, 
the fearful probability was, that he would pur- 
sue it to his ruin. 

But " God, who is rich in mercy," and hath 
no pleasure in the death of the sinner, caused 
a somewhat singular incident to be the means 
of converting the ungodly youth from " the 
error of his way." There lived in Lincoln, at 
that time, an intelligent watchmaker, who was 
no relative of Richard, though he bore the same 
name. Richard frequently visited the house 
of this man, both for the pleasure of his con- 
versation, and for his assistance in the mathe- 
matical studies in which he was then en- 
gaged. The watchmaker's wife was a profes- 
sor of religion, and a zealous Calvinist. The 
family of the Watsons having at that time for- 
saken the Calvinistic ministry, and attached 
themselves to the Methodists, the good woman, 
who was fond of disputation, was exceedingly 
desirous to convince Richard how grievously 
they had erred in so doing. Richard, vvho came 
to the house for scientific purposes merely, was 
greatly annoyed by Ker lengthened speeches 
on questions which he did not understand, and 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 19 

in which he feU little interest ; and at the same 
time his vanity was mortified when she press- 
ed him with arguments which he was unable 
to answer. He had for some time absented 
himself from the Methodist chapel, but he now- 
determined to attend there a few times, hoping 
to hear something that would enable him to 
silence his opponent. Such was the motive 
which induced him again to resort to the house 
of God ; but the first sermon that he heard after 
his return, convinced him that there were sub- 
jects of greater importance than those on which 
he had come to seek information.* The word 
came with power to his heart ; his numerous 
and aggravated sins were brought to his re- 
membrance, and he saw that he was guilty in 
the sight of God, and exposed to the curse of 
the divine law. His chief concern now was, 
not how he might silence the eager controver- 
sialist who had puzzled him, but how he might 
escape the wrath of an offended God, which 

* The preacher on this occasion was the Rev. George 
Sargent, a pious and devoted minister, who, after having 
served the church for many years, w^as, in 1823, killed by 
the overturning of a coach, while on his way to the con- 
ference. The same accident also nroved fatal to another 
preacher, the Rev. Edward B. Lloyd, who was travelling 
with hixD- 



20 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



hung over his head, and seemed ready to break 
forth upon him. In this state of mind, " sor- 
rowing after a godly sort," he accompanied 
some pious people to a neighbouring village to 
hear a sermon by the Rev. William Dodwell, 
an evangelical clergyman of the Episcopal 
Church. Here his convictions were deepened ; 
and his grief occasioned by the remembrance 
of his rebellion against God was rendered more 
acute and painful. He was alarmed for the 
consequences of his wickedness ; the burden 
of his guilt pressed heavily upon him ; and un- 
der a sense of his perilous condition he was 
led to cry from his heart, " God be merciful to 
me a sinner." 

He did not lono' continue in this distressinor 
state. He was surrounded by friends who had 
passed through the same painful process to the 
joys of pardon and purity of heart. These re- 
joiced to see the prodigal return from his wan- 
derings ; they sympathized in the sorrows of 
the weeping penitent ; they directed his atten- 
tion to the Lamb of God who died for the sins 
of the world; and earnestly and affec* 'onately 
exhorted him to believe, v/ith the -.icart unto 
righteousness, in his crucified Redeemer. He 
did so, and was soon " filled with joy and 
peace in believing." His darkness was turned 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



21 



into the light of day ; guihy fear gave place to 
filial love ; the Holy Spirit bore witness with 
his spirit that he was a child of God ; he loved 
God under a deep and abiding assurance of 
God's lore to him ; and he loved all mankind 
for the Lord's sake. He could now adopt, in 
all its fulness, the folio win or lansoiaQfe of one 
of our hymns : — 

" Long my imprison'd spirit lav. 

Fast bound in sin and nature's night : 
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray ; 

I woke ; the dungeon flamed with light ; 
My chains fell off my heart was free ; 
I rose, went forth, and foUow'd Thee." 

It has been justly observed by a modern 
writer, that a change like this can never be 
forgotten ; that a man might as well attempt to 
forget a hairbreadth escape from shipwreck, as 
to forget the period Vv'hen, in the Scriptural 
sense of the expression, he passed from death 
unto life." To the end of his days, ^Ir. Wat- 
son retained a ^ivid recollection of the feelings 
and occurrences connected with this period of 
his history. When conversing with his friends 
he often spoke of the insensibility of his heart 
previous to his conversion, and of the spiritual 
enjo\TQents which succeeded that event. On 
one occasion, after a lapse of thirty years, he 



22 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



paid a visit to the place of his spiritual birth, 
and attended a love-feast which, amidst the de- 
lightful exercises of a missionary anniversar\', 
was held by the members of the Methodist so- 
ciety in Lincoln and its neighbourhood. With 
deep emotion, the tears gushing from his eyes, 
he related the particulars of his early life, es- 
pecially his wickedness in connecting himself 
with the persecutors of God's people ; the peni- 
tent distress which he experienced when con- 
vinced of sin ; and the state of light and liberty 
into which he was brought when the burden 
of his guilt was removed, and he was enabled 
to " rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 

The effects of regenerating grace were strik- 
ingly displayed in the subsequent spirit and 
conduct of this remarkable youth. Every thing 
in his behaviour evinced the greatness as well 
as the reality of the change he had experienced. 
He immediately forsook his ungodly com- 
panions, and became a willing and happy mem- 
ber of the ^lethodist society at Lincoln, meekly 
submitting to all the contumely and insult with 
which they were then treated in that city. His 
passion for folly and mischief was entirely sub- 
dued ; his spirit was serious, cheerful, and 
devout ; his attention to business was sedulous 
and exemplary ; and his whole deportment was 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



23 



so circumspect and commendable, that religious 
parents were accustom.ed to liold him up as an 
example to their children ; and in some in- 
stances young people were so struck with the 
change which they saw in him, as to be deeply 
impressed with the reality and power of reli- 
gion. His conversion excited the resentment 
of the persecutors of the Methodists, who be- 
came more outrageous than ever ; and the con- 
gregations were subjected to every species of 
annoyance, both in the chapel and on their way 
to it. One evening a number of men, dressed 
in a ludicrous manner, came to the chapel with 
a fiddle, to disturb the worshippers of God. 
With this impious adventure, Richard would a 
few months before have been highly delighted ; 
but now he viewed it with different feelings. 
On his return home he related to his mother 
what had occurred, at the same time weeping, 
because of the dishonour done to God by the 
profane interruption of his worship, and the 
folly and wickedness of the men who were 
thus insensible to every obligation of decency 
and religion. 

After his conversion he was remarkably dili- 
gent in improving his time. In the day he 
cheerfully attended to the labours of his call- 
ing, but his evenings were devoted to the wor- 



24 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

ship of God, and the acquisition of useful 
knowledge. He spent much time in secret 
prayer, wrestling with God for spiritual bless- 
ings, and for the prosperity and enlargement of 
the kingdom of Christ. He was also constant 
in his attendance on the public prayer meet- 
ings, where he soon began to take a part in the 
public addresses to the throne of grace. This 
provoked, in a high degree, the ridicule of his 
former companions ; but he steadily held on his 
way, and suffered nothing to divert him from 
his purpose of serving God, and him alone. 

The prayer meetings at the chapel often be- 
gan about the time that his labours in the shop 
were ended, so that considerable haste was 
necessary to enable him to be at the house of 
God when the service commenced. It is a re- 
markable fact, that twice, when running to the 
chapel, in his eagerness to join his Christian 
friends in divine worship, he fell, and broke his 
arm. On these occasions his zeal received a 
temporary check ; and instead of pursuing his 
way to the " place where prayer was wont to 
be made," he sorrowfully returned home to re- 
late to his parents the disaster which had be- 
fallen him. 

Mr. Watson's talent for usefulness soon be- 
came apparent. Although at the time of his 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 25 

conversion a mere boy, it was not long before 
he began to give " a word of exhortation" in 
prayer meetings. His first public address was 
occasioned by the death of his maternal grand- 
mother, who resided at that time in his father's 
house. She was upward of eighty years old, 
and appears to have been a woman of very de- 
vout spirit. She regularly attended public wor- 
ship at her parish church on the sabbath ; and 
almost every day in the week she was present 
at the religious services in the cathedral, not- 
withstanding that edifice was nearly a mile 
from her home, and stood on the summit of a 
steep and lofty hill, which it was necessary for 
her to ascend. Although not a member of the 
Methodist society, she frequently attended their 
chapel, and joined with them in worshipping 
God, and listening to the word of his grace." 
To this venerable and pious relative, Richard 
was tenderly attached. One day, when he was 
at the shop, she said to her granddaughter, 
" Ann, my dear, get the prayer book, and read 
to me the whole of the burial service. I should 
like to hear it." Her request was complied 
with, notwithstanding its singularity. She then 
said, " I very much wish to see Richard. Will 
any of you ask him to come home ?" He was 
sent for ; but the answer v/as, that he could not 



26 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



be spared from his work. He added, however, 
that he would see his grandmother in the even- 
ing when his work was done. In the mean 
time she said to her daughter, 1 am very 
sleepy." Her daughter replied, " I will fetch 
you a pillow, mother, and you shall lean your 
head on the table while you sit in your chair." 
The pillow was brought ; she reclined her head 
upon it, closed her eyes, and instantly expired, 
without the slightest indication of pain. 

When Richard came home, and found that 
his grandmother had thus suddenly and unex- 
pectedly departed this life, he was greatly af- 
fected. In the evening he attended the prayer 
meeting, and, under the impulse of his feelings, 
addressed the congregation on the solemn 
event which had just occurred in his fathers 
house. This was on the 10th of February, 
1796, so that Richard was not yet fifteen years 
old when he began to " call sinners to repent- 
ance." On the twenty-third of the same month, 
being the day after he had completed his fifteenth 
year, he preached his first sermon in a cottage 
at Boothby, a small village near Lincoln, an in- 
stance of precocity almost unexampled. Such 
was the commencement of Richard Watson's 
public ministry, the future character of which 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



27 



neither he nor his humble auditors at that time 
anticipated. 

The employment of persons so young in the 
public service of the church, is, in ordinary 
instances, liighly injudicious. But the case of 
Mr. Watson was peculiar. He possessed a 
strength and sobriety of judgment, of which, at 
that period of life, there have been few exam- 
ples ; while the depth and solidity of his piety- 
would have done honour to hoary hairs. The 
cordiality with which he was received by the 
most pious and intelligent of his hearers, and 
the success which attended his labours, proved 
that he had not mistaken his calling. His men- 
tal growth had been as rapid as that of his cor- 
poreal frame ; and he was a man, both in under- 
standing and in stature, at an age when people 
in general are mere children. 



28 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



CHAPTER II. 

state of religion in the villages near Lincoln— Mr. Watson la- 
bours as a local preacher — Opposition — Interest excited by his 
preaching — Visit to Newark — Released from his apprenticeship 
—Sent to supply the place of a preacher in the Newark circuit— 
His feelings on arriving there— Received on trial as a travelling 
preacher, and appointed to Ashby-de-la-Zouch — His character and 
usefulness — Labours beyond his strength — Appointed to Castle- 
Donington circuit — Preaches against the doctrine of universal 
restoration — Visit to Leicester — Appointed to labour there — Mr. 
Edmondson's account of his character, studies, and ministry — 
Removal to Derby — Success of his preaching. 

Mr. Watson, having begun to preach, was 
impelled onward by a conviction of duty, and 
an ardent desire for the salvation of souls. The 
moral state of the villages near Lincoln was, 
at that time, such as to av/aken the sympathies, 
and call forth the most strenuous exertions of 
the friends of Jesus. There was among the 
people not only a lamentable ignorance of the 
spirituality and power of religion, but also a 
general indifference to its forms ; and at the 
same time they violently opposed every effort 
to bring about a reformation. In what is now 
the Lincoln circuit, the Methodists had then no 
chapel except the one in the city ; and there 
were only about six local preachers. These 
pious men, after devoting six days of the week 
to the labours of their calling, spent the sabbath 
in visiting the neighbouring villages, and call- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



29 



ling men to repentance. They had no regular 
plan of operation, but each man went where he 
thought his labours were most needed. In many 
of these villages, having no houses to preach 
in, they stood in the open air, and proclaimed 
their message to as many as could be persuaded 
to listen. In this work, which required a forti- 
tude which no personal danger could daunt, and 
^ a spirit of endurance which no provocation or 
insult could overcome, Mr. Watson now took his 
part ; and young as he vv as, both in years and re- 
ligion, he was admirably qualified for it. His zeal 
v/as great, and his addresses Vv^ere distinguish- 
ed by their earnestness and even by their vehe- 
mence. He frequently met with the most rude 
and offensive treatment ; and his mother states, 
that w^hen he returned home his clothes often ' 
bore sad marks of the violence with which he 
had been assailed. In one village which he 
visited, his uncle, a respectable farmer, resided; 
and there he was attacked with rotten egg's, and 
other missiles ; w^hile his relative, so far from 
protecting him, encouraged the mob, and said, 
" Pelt him well, lads ; my nephew can stand fir e,'^'' 
In these labours the pious shoemaker before 
mentioned was generally his faithful associate. 
He used to stand by his young friend in the midst 
of mobs , and strive to protect him from interrup- 



30 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



tion and injury.* Mr. Jackson says, he can 
testify, from personal knowledge, that, in a com- 
paratively short space of time, incalculable good 
was effected by the blessing of God upon the 
disinterested labours of Richard Watson and his 
coadjutors. 

It was impossible that a person so young, so 
deeply pious, and so gifted, should continue to 
preach without exciting general attention. He 
sometimes occupied the pulpit of the Methodist 
chapel in Lincoln, to the astonishment of the 
congregation, and especially of those who were 
acquainted with his former levity and folly. 
Reports concerning the character and success 
of his preaching spread into districts where he 
was personally unknown ; and many were in- 
duced to say, " I would hear the young man 

" For many years the shoemaker here referred to was 
a very zealous and useful member of the Methodist society 
in Lincoln, and afforded valuable assistance in extending 
the work of God in the neighbourhood ; but his latter end, 
unhappily, was not worthy of his previous life. Surround- 
ed by a large family^ he extended his business beyond his 
pecuniary means, and involved himself in difficulties, un- 
der the pressure of which his moral principles were over- 
come, and his sun set behind a cloud. His name is there- 
fore withheld ; and his case is recorded as a warning to 
others. 'He that shall endure unto the end, the same 
shall be saved.' " 



V 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 31 

myself." Among other places, he was request- 
ed to visit Newark, and to preach in the Me- 
thodist chapel. With this request he complied; 
but when he ascended the pulpit his boyish 
aspect excited painful alarm in many who came 
to hear, and who could scarcely believe that it 
was possible for one so young to preach ex- 
tempore. Their alarm was increased when he 
read for his text John iv, 24, " God is a spirit; 
and they that worship him must worship him in 
spirit and in truth thinking that the words pre- 
sented difficulties which he was not prepared 
to encounter. As he proceeded in his discourse, 
however, and they heard from his lips some of 
the most important truths of revelation, deliver- 
ed with a hallov/ed seriousness and fervour, and 
with a correctness of sentiment and expression 
that would have done honour to an aged divine, 
their apprehensions entirely subsided, and they 
listened to his message with mingled feelings 
of admiration and delight. This visit to Newark 
led to important results. It was a link in that 
golden chain of Providence, by which he was 
ultimately drawn from secular pursuits, and 
" separated to the gospel of God.*' 

To those of his hearers who were pos- 
sessed of spiritual discernment, it must have 
been manifest, even from his first attempts at 



32 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



preaching, that Mr. Watson was providentially 
designed for the work of the ministry. His 
employment as a mechanic afforded no ade- 
quate scope for the exercise of his mental 
powers ; and his mind was constantly occupied 
in the study of the Scriptures, in the prepara- 
tion of sermons, and in plans of usefulness to 
the souls of men. His attention was drawn 
to these subjects by an influence which he 
knew not how to resist ; and his highest en- 
joyment was found in preaching to others those 
holy doctrines whose truth and power he had 
himself realized. Serious impediments, how- 
ever, seemed to stand in his path. Five years 
of his apprenticeship were yet unexpired ; and 
if he should employ the whole of this time in 
m.anual labour, the cultivation of his mind must 
continue in a great degree neglected, and his 
means of usefulness in future life be propor- 
tionably diminished. Under these circum- 
stances he meekly pursued his course of duty, 
leaving himself entirely in the hands of God, 
and taking no anxious thought for the morrow. 
At length his way was opened in a manner 
which he could never have anticipated. His 
employer was not wealthy, nor did he make a 
strict profession of religion. The services of 
his apprentice had become valuable, and were 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 33 

likely to be still more so through a series of 
years. Yet seeing that his gain would be a 
permanent loss to the young man, he generously 
gave up the indenture by which Richard was 
bound to him, and advised that he should be 
sent to a relative in London, a cabinet-maker, 
where he would have an opportunity of turning 
his ingenuity to better account than if he con- 
tinued with him to the end of his apprentice- 
ship. Richard was thus at liberty to act as 
God in his providence might direct. On the 
part of Mr. Bescoby the liberation of his ap- 
prentice was altogether a voluntary act ; and 
he seems to have had no object in view but the 
temporal advantage of the youth, whose cha- 
racter he admired, and in whose welfare he felt 
a friendly concern. 

When Mr. Watson had thus obtained his 
liberty, his father proposed that he should re- 
pair to London for the purpose which his late 
employer had suggested. Richard, however, 
said he did not think he should long confine 
his attention to business of any kind, as he be- 
lieved himself to be called of God to the Chris- 
tian ministry. " If that be the case," replied 
his father, "it is useless to expend any more 
time and money in acquiring a knowledge of 
any trade." 

3 



34 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



At this juncture the Rev. Thomas Cooper, 
then stationed in the Newark circuit, lost his 
heakh ; and it became necessary to engage 
some person to supply his lack of ministerial 
service. In this emergency the attention of 
the people was directed to Mr. Watson, who had 
preached in Newark with acceptance a short 
time before. He was accordingly requested to 
supply Mr. Cooper's place for a time ; and as 
he was disengaged, and had a strong predilec- 
tion for the ministry, he complied, and repaired 
to Newark in the spring of 1796. 

On his arrival in Newark he went to the 
house of Mr. Cooper, where he was very kind- 
ly received. He had not been long there be- 
fore he became deeply affected with his situa- 
tion. He had just left his kind parents for the 
first time ; he was surrounded by strangers, 
about to enter upon a work of great difficulty, 
and of fearful responsibility ; and he felt that 
his abilities were unequal to the task which 
was laid upon him. Under the impression of 
these views he sighed deeply, and at length, 
overcome by his feelings, he wept like a child. 
Mr. Cooper, who knew the heart of a young 
preacher and a stranger, sympathized with his 
sorrowing friend. He took him up into his 
study; conversed with him at considerable 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATiOX 



35 



lensfth ; encouracfed liim in the most feeling 
manner: and united with liim in earnest prayer 
that the Lord would assist him. and bless him 
in his work. 

Air. Watson entered upon his itinerant la- 
bours with fear and trembling. It was a con- 
siderable disadvantage to him that he was sent 
in the place of ^Ir. Cooper, whose talents as a 
preacher were of a Yery popular kind. When 
he went to one village on the circuit, the family 
by whom he was entertained could not suppress 
their feehngs of disappointment when they 
found that the place of their favourite preacher 
was to be supplied by a stranger, of very boyish 
appearance, whom they had never previously 
seen ; and they uttered in his presence the 
most uDseemly complaints, in. a manner calcu- 
lated to make a very painful impression upon 
his mind. He listened in silence to their ex- 
pressions of regret, and when the time of ser- 
rice arrived, he rose, and. with becomincr 
seriousness, gave out the hymn beginninsf, — 

• Hc^ -ippy is the pflgrim's lot. 
Ho free from every anxioas thonght. 

From worldly hope and fear ; 
Cormned to neither court nor cell. 
His aaak disdains on earth to dwell ; 

He only sojourns here.'* 



36 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



The entire service was conducted with such 
decorum and impressiveness, and such a hea- 
venly influence attended the sermon, that the 
congregation were greatiy affected ; and the 
persons who had formed an estimate of his 
abilities from his youthful appearance, finding 
that they had judged erroneously, expressed 
their concern for the unkindness of their re- 
marks, and joined with the rest in requesting 
him to visit them again, even in the place of 
Mr. Cooper. 

To protect themselves from persecution, 
some of the preachers in this circuit found it 
necessary to obtain certificates, commonly call- 
ed licenses, under the " Toleration act," then in 
force ; and Mr. Watson availed himself of the 
opportunity. This was on the 10th of August, 
1796. Some objections were made to him by 
the magistrates, very naturally, on account of 
his youth, and boyish appearance ; for though 
very tall, he was exceedingly slender ; but one 
of the bench observed, that " no age was spe- 
cified for the dissenters," and the usual oaths 
were reluctantly, and somewhat angrily, ad- 
ministered to the juvenile applicant. 

Mr. Watson remained in the Newark circuit 
as Mr. Cooper's assistant, giving great and gene- 
ral satisfaction, until the conference of 1796 ; 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 37 

but he had no expectation that he should then 
be received into the regular itinerancy, for he 
was only fifteen years and six months old. He 
was ready to obey the call of Providence, 
either by labouring in the word and doctrine, 
or returning to his secular employ. In the ac- 
count of his own life, Mr. Cooper says, "When 
I had been about a year and a half in this cir- 
cuit I was deeply afflicted, and therefore sent 
to invite Mr. Watson, of Lincoln, who, though 
only sixteen years old, was a local preacher, 
to come and help me. He kindly consented, 
and continued with me during the remainder of 
the year. When I arrived at the London con- 
ference, I earnestly entreated our brethren to 
accept Mr. Watson upon trial as a travelling 
preacher ; stating that he had been exceed- 
ingly useful while with me ; and, though so 
young, I knew the Lord had called him to the 
w^ork, and fitted him for it, and I believed he 
would be an able and useful minister of the 
gospel : but all my pleadings were in vain ; for 
the senior preachers thought he was too young 
for the important v/ork. Nevertheless, when I 
arrived at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in 1796, the cir- 
cuit appointed for me, I found it quite neces- 
sary to have more help ; I therefore sent for Mr. 
Watson again, and he cheerfully came to me, 



38 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



and continued the whole year, and was very 
acceptable. At the next conference I met with 
no reproof for thus acting. Mr. Watson was 
received with great satisfaction ; the year was 
aKowed him ; and he v/ent to his second cir- 
cuit with comfort." 

Before he received Mr. Cooper's invitation, 
Mr. Watson began to make arrangements for 
working at his own business in Newark. Dur- 
ing this interval, the Rev. Jonathan Edmond- 
son preached in that town, on his way from 
the conference. He gives the following ac- 
count of Mr. Watson at that time : — " The 
moment I fixed my eyes upon him in the con- 
gregation, I was struck with his singular ap- 
pearance. He was very tall and thin ; his 
look was serious and dignified ; and his coun- 
tenance indicated great intellectual power. 
When I left the pulpit, I inquired who he was ; 
the friends told me that he was a youth of 
sixteen, who was employed in the circuit to 
assist the travelling preachers." 

Mr. Watson's colleagues in his new scene of 
labour were the Rev. Messrs. Cooper and Burd- 
sall, with whom he co-operated in the mpst 
faithful and alfectionate manner for the further- 
ance of the work of God. According to the 
testimony of those who were acquainted with 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 39 

him at this period, his entire spirit and conduct 
proved him to be a man of God ; and the talent 
which he displayed in his ministry excited 
general surprise. 

The following particulars respecting Mr. 
Watson's labours in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
circuit are taken from an account furnished by 
Mr. Robert Stenson, a respectable local preach- 
er, who at that time resided there, and was 
very intimate with him. He says : — " Soon 
after Mr. Watson came into the circuit, I heard 
him preach on Heb. iii, 2, 3. He introduced 
his discourse in a very interesting manner, and 
with the seriousness of an aged divine. But when 
he entered upon the discussion of his subject 
I was truly astonished. From that day to the 
present, I do not believe that I have ever heard 
the salvation of the gospel, in its fulness and 
spirituality, more clearly set forth, or more im- 
pressively urged upon the acceptance of perish- 
ing sinners, than it was by him on that occa- 
sion. During his stay in the circuit, his piety, 
zeal, and talents, bore him up in the esteem and 
affections of the people ; and although his col- 
leagues were both of them men of superior 
abilities as preachers, and had greatly the ad- 
vantage over him in experience, yet Mr. Wat- 
son commanded equal congregations with them. 



40 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



In the pulpit he was deeply serious. His pub- 
lic addresses to the throne of grace were cha- 
racterized by great fervour. In preaching he 
was A^ery faithful, energetic, pointed, and suc- 
cessful. The matter of his sermons was solid 
and important ; and they were remarkable for 
clearness, fulness, and precision. During the 
first six or seven months he laboured very hard, 
even beyond his strength, and was instrument- 
al in the conversion of many souls. His ear- 
nest exertions, both in prayer and preaching, 
were more than his feeble constitution could 
bear. His health, therefore, failed, and he 
was obliged to return home, and rest for some 
months, in order to the recovery of his strength. 
The loss of his labours was greatly lamented 
by the congregations ; for he was generally be- 
loved by the people. In his intercourse with 
his friends and the societies, he was more like a 
man of forty years of age, than a youth of six- 
teen ; exhibiting an admirable mixture of Chris- 
tian cheerfulness, sobriety, and seriousness. 
His habits were sociable and friendly, and his 
company very agreeable. At the same time 
he was deeply studious, and his thirst for know- 
ledge was unbounded. I knew him well from 
the time that he was sixteen years of age till 
he was twenty ; and in regard to that period 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON, 



41 



of his life, among persons of the same age, I 
have not found his equal for piety, moral worth, 
and efficient preaching. In the course of forty- 
years' experience and observation, and inter- 
course with the church, I have never met with 
any young man who, in these respects, could, 
in my estimation, bear a comparison with Rich- 
ard Watson." 

At the conference of 1797 he was appointed 
to the Castle-Donington circuit, under the su- 
perintendence of the Rev. George Sargent, 
through whose ministry he had been convinced 
of sin. In this station he conducted himself in 
an upright and Christian manner, and laboured 
with his usual fidelity and success. He did 
not content himself with a general declaration 
of gospel truth ; but directed his preaching 
against the prevalent errors of the times ; espe- 
cially the doctrine of universal restoration, as 
taught by Mr. Winchester, who zealously main- 
tained that all lost beings would be finally re- 
stored to purity and heaven. This doctrine, 
which converts hell into a purgatory, contra- 
dicts the express testimony of revelation ; and 
by holding out to the unregenerate the assur- 
ance of final happiness, even if they should die 
i in their sins, destroys the principal motive to 
1 repentance and conversion. Young as he was. 

II 



42 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



Mr. Watson saw the imscriptural character and 
pernicious tendency of this popular error, and 
warned his hearers of the fearful consequences 
connected with its practical adoption. 

During his stay in this circuit he spent a 
Sunday in Leicester, having exchanged places 
with one of the preachers there. On this day 
he preached two sermons on Hebrews xi, 6, 
" He that cometh to God must believe that he is, 
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently 
seek himP In the first of these discourses he 
undertook to prove the being and perfections 
of God, in opposition to that branch of infidel 
philosophy which denies a first cause, a super- 
intending providence, and a moral government ; 
and in the second he directed the attention of 
his hearers to the manner in which God is to 
be sought, and the revv^ard which will crown 
the exertions of those who seek him according 
to his vvord and will. With these sermons the 
people were highly gratified, and a strong de- 
sire was expressed that Mr. Watson might be 
appointed to labour among them the ensuing 
year. K request to that effect was forwarded 
to the conference, and he was accordingly sent 
to that station, under the superintendence of 
the Rev. Jonathan Edmondson. 

This appointment was to Mr. W^atson a pe- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 43 

culiarly happy one. His lot was cast among an 
affectionate people, who esteemed and loved 
him ; and his labours were both acceptable and 
useful. But the greatest advantage which he 
derived from it arose from his intercourse with 
his superintendent. Up to this period Mr. 
Watson's reading, though extensive, had been 
too desultory to be of much practical benefit. 
He was eager to know, and had a mind capa- 
ble of acquiring knowledge in the most rapid 
manner, but greatly needed the assistance of 
some judicious friend to guide him in the selec- 
tion of books, and to mark out for him some 
regular and systematic course of study. Such 
a friend and counsellor he found in Mr. Ed- 
mondson, who was himself a great reader, a 
hard student, and withal a kind-hearted and 
friendly man. From him Mr. Watson received 
valuable advice and assistance in the acquisi- 
tion of different branches of knowledge ; and 
for the person of this enlightened " guide of 
his youth" he ever cherished a strong regard. 

Respecting this part of Mr. Watson's personal 
history, Mr. Edmondson has furnished an ac- 
count, from which we make the following ex- 
tracts : — 

"In the year 1798 Mr. Watson was stationed 
with me at Leicester. I soon perceived that 



44 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



he was a youtli of very superior parts ; that he 
had a most surprising grasp of intellect ; and . 
that, if he held on his way, he would become 
one of our brightest luminaries. I could not 
render him all the assistance he should have 
had at that critical period of his life ; but I did 
what I could ; and, with a generosity of soul 
worthy of himself, he always expressed a grate- 
ful sense of my poor services. 

"As an inmate of our family, he was social, 
friendly, and affectionate. He gave no trouble, 
was well pleased with every thing, and was 
greatly beloved by all under my roof. We 
never saw him out of temper. He never put 
on any lofty airs, but was humble, modest, and 
unassuming. We never had an angry word, 
an unkind look, or the slightest interruption of 
a most delightful friendship ; and when he left 
us, at the end of the year, we sustained a loss 
in our domestic circle v/hich we deeply de- 
plored. 

His studies, before he came to Leicester, 
had been extremely irregular and desultory ; 
and he had acquired such a habit of passing 
rapidly from one thing to another, without go- 
ing to the bottom of any, that it was difficult 
for him to fix his thoughts for any length of 
time upon any given subject. But when he 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON: 



45 



conquered that habit, he could acquire more in- 
formation in a few days than some others could 
in as many months. Perceiving this defect, I 
strongly urged the necessity of perseverance in 
all his literary pursuits ; and afterward found 
that my advice had not been disregarded. 

" As a reader, he had no taste for common 
and ordinary works. Standard books, of high 
reputation, were his favourites ; and that cir- 
cumstance assisted him much, when he became 
an author, both in regard to the style and sen- 
timents of his valuable publications. His me- 
mory vv^as remarkably strong. He told Mrs. 
Edmondson, that if he read a work once, it was 
almost all his own ; and that if he read it 
twice, it was his own altogether. 

" I gave him a plan of reading and study, 
adapted to the itinerant life, which I had form- 
ed for myself, and which I afterward published 
in my ' Essay on the Christian }Jinistry.' How 
far this plan was observed by him, while he 
continued to travel, I cannot say ; but I know 
it met with his approbation, and that he adopt- 
ed it while we were stationed together. When 
we went out into the circuit, our saddle-bags 
were loaded with books ; and when we re- 
turned, we generally gave an account of what 
we had read and studied. Our circuit was not 



46 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

one of the most extensive ; we were a fortnight 
out, and a fortnight home. During the fort- 
night at home we walked thirty or forty miles a 
week ; and supplied Leicester and six or eight 
adjacent villages, generally returning home 
three or four miles after the evening service. 

" While I was in that circuit, I made a reso- 
lution to select some important subject of medi- 
tation on every journey when I was alone ; or 
of conversation on every journey when I had 
company. This I recommended to Mr. Wat- 
son, and I have reason to believe he continued 
to observe it in after life ; for I have heard that 
he could employ his thoughts on the most pro- 
found subjects while v/alking even in the noisy 
streets of London. 

" Mr. Watson's temper was noble and gene- 
rous, without the slightest mixture of either 
littleness or meanness. He indulged in the 
innocent cheerfulness of youth, and occasion- 
ally amused his friends with anecdotes of an 
extraordinary character ; but he was generally 
grave, solemn, and dignified. 

^' When he travelled with me he was much 
esteemed as a preacher, though not remarkably 
popular. His sermons were not of that finish- 
ed character which they assumed in his riper 
years ; and yet there was in them a strength 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



17 



of mind, and a grasp of thought, Avhich was ad- 
mired by all judicious hearers. I heard him 
occasionally ; and was of opinion that his dis- 
courses were more remarkable for boldness of 
thought, and appropriate figures of rhetoric, 
than for regularity of composition." 

While in the Leicester circuit, 'Mr. Watson's 
studies were not exclusively directed to divini- 
ty, literature, and science. His active mind 
aspired to an acquaintance with every subject 
within his reach. In his visits to the different 
villages, he made minute inquiries into the na- 
ture of the various m^anufactures in which the 
people were engaged ; and at the house where 
he lodged, he often tried his skill in wool- 
combing, stocking-weaving, and other employ- 
ments, as a matter of relaxation from severer 
pursuits. 

At the conference of 1799 'Mi. "Watson was 
appointed to Derby, having for his colleagues 
the Rev. Messrs. Shelmerdine and Seckerson, 
men whom he ever after esteemed and loved 
for their piety, intelligence, and Christian affec- 
tion. On the first Sunday after his arrival he 
preached in Derby, when two persons are said 
to have obtained salvation under his ministry. 
One of these was a blind woman belonging to 
the wx)rk-house ; who from that time adorned 



48 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



her profession, and some years after died in 
the Lord. He was greatly affected with this 
instance of the divine goodness, in thus bless- 
ing his ministry ; and resolved to devote him- 
self afresh to the service of God and his church. 

It was during his stay in Derby that Mr. 
Watson commenced his career as an author. 
The Rev. J. Hotham, an Episcopal clergyman 
of that city, had taken great pains to circulate 
a weak and illiberal pamphlet, entitled, " An 
Address to the People called Methodists." The 
design of this " Address" was to destroy pub- 
lic confidence in the Methodist ministers, by 
representing them as unauthorized teachers, 
who preached erroneous and enthusiastic doc- 
trines, deprived men of innocent pleasures 
and gratifications, and subjected them to need- 
less terrors and alarms on the subject of reli- 
gion. Although the charges and arguments 
contained in this " Address" had been a hun- 
dred times advanced and refuted, yet as it was 
extensively and gratuitously circulated, and was 
likely to make an injurious impression upon 
the minds of those persons who were but little 
acquainted with the Methodists, it was deemed 
desirable that the pamphlet should be answered; 
and accordingly Mr. Watson, at the request of 
the friends in Derby, published a reply, under 



LIFE OF RICHARD AVATSOX. 



49 



the title of An Apology for the People called 
Methodists ; in a letter to the Rev. J. Hotham, 
B. x\., Rector of St. Hurburgh's, Derby, in an- 
swer to a pamphlet lately circulated among the 
inhabitants of Derby, entitled, ' An Address to 
the People called Methodists.' By Richard 
Watson, Preacher of the Gospel." 

In reply to the charge that the ^Methodist 
preachers distressed" the minds of the poor, 
ignorant, well-meaning people, Mr. Watson re- 
marks, — " We distress the minds of those 'loell- 
meaning^ people, who perhaps may be at the 
same time drunkards, swearers, liars, sab- 
bath-breakers, &c. We distress these ' icell- 
meaning people,' I say, by telling them that 
they are sinners, and must come to Jesus Christ 
for salvation, and that if they obstinately refuse, 
they must all perish. Is not all this Scriptural ? 
And wall not they have cause to bless God for 
this ' distress,' if it leads them to believe on 
* him who justifieth the ungodly?' And ought 
not you, sir, instead of reviling, to say with the 
apostle, when s^e of his ' poor, ignorant, well- 
meaning' folloAvers were ' distressed,' ' Now I 
rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that 
ye sorrowed to repentance V 2 Cor. vii, 9." 

This first publication of Mr. Watson, which 
is dated April 4, 1800, though of course vastly 
4 



50 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

inferior to the eloquent and argumentative pro- 
ductions which in after years proceeded from 
his pen, was yet highly creditable to the youth 
of nineteen. 

Mr. Watson's character and labours in the 
Derby circuit were duly appreciated by the 
societies and congregations, who were desirous 
to secure his services a second year ; but the 
feebleness of his health, which he thought ren- 
dered him unfit for that station, induced him to 
decline their request. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



51 



CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Watson is admitted into full connection with the confer- 
ence — Appointed to the Hinckley circuit — Commences the study 
of Hebrew — Is unjustly suspected of holding- erroneous doctrines 
— Meets with unkind treatment — Retires from the ministry — Act- 
ed unadvisedly in so doing — Enters into business — Marries — Spi- 
ritual declension — Becomes a private member of the Methodist 
New Connection — Religious improvement — Enters upon the mi- 
nistry in the Methodist New Connection — Appointed to the Man- 
chester circuit — Publishes a satirical pamplilet, called " The Book 
of Kane" — His diligence in the ministry — Pubhshes two sermons 
— Removal to Liverpool — Extracts from his correspondence. 

In August, 1800, Mr. Watson, who was then 
nineteen years and six months old, repaired to 
the conference in London, where, having pass- 
ed acceptably through the usual four years of 
probation, and undergone a strict examination 
both in regard to his personal piety and doc- 
trinal views, he was solemnly set apart to the 
full duties of the Christian ministry, and ap- 
pointed to the Hinckley circuit. 

Mr. Watson entered upon his new appoint- 
ment under very encouraging circumstances. 
His talents as a preacher had been greatly im- 
proved by exercise ; and his attainments as a 
theologian were considerable. His past suc- 
cess, his present prospects, and the examples 
of ministerial zeal and ability with which he was 
surrounded, all conspired to operate upon his 



52 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



ardent and ingenuous mind, and to stimulate him 
to increased diligence, both in his ministry and 
studies. Mr. Edmondson, his faithful and tried 
friend, was in a neighbouring circuit, and their 
improving intercourse was still continued. 
" While Mr. Watson was stationed at Hinckley," 
observes that excellent man, " I advised him 
to enter upon the study of Hebrew, assuring 
him, from my own limited experience, that 
he might soon read a considerable portion of 
the Old Testament with ease. He took the 
advice, and on that day month he read the first 
psalm in Hebrew, accounting gTammatically for 
every word ; and he read to m.e a beautiful 
paraphrase on the whole psalm, which he had 
drawn up from the fine ideas expressed in the 
original. Such indeed was the strength of his 
mind, that he could quickly master .ny subject, 
however difficult, to which he direciad his at- 
tention. He had for some time been success- 
fully engaged in reading the Greek Testament ; 
and having, with such encouraging results, en- 
tered upon the study of the Hebrew Bible, the 
rich and endless stores of sacred literature were 
placed within his reach, and offered the highest 
gratification to his understanding and taste. 
■ But the year which commenced under these 
promising circumstances, proved to him an 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



53 



eventful and unhappy one. While he was thus 
employed in the duties of his office, and in 
laudable endeavours to render himself an " able 
minister of the New Testament," he met with 
trials which he had never anticipated, and I'or 
which he v/as therefore unprepared. His hap- 
piness as a man, and his usefulness as a minis- 
ter were about to undergo a serious interrup- 
tion. 

The late Rev. Andrew Fuller, in one of his 
publications,* observes, " There are few, if 
any, thinking men, but who at some seasons 
have had their minds perplexed with regard to 
religious principles, even those which are of 
the highest importance. In the end, however, 
where the heart is right, they commonly issue in 
a more decided attachment to the truth." Such 
was the case with Richard Watson. He was 
at this time engaged in the study of some of 
the more difficult points of Christian theology, 
especially the doctrine of the trinity ; and he 
read attentively all the works within his reach 
that treated on those subjects. Some of these 
writers were far from paying that absolute 
deference to the authority of the Holy Scrip- 
tures which is requisite in all questions of this 
nature ; and perhaps the reading of them was 
* Life of the Rev. Samuel Pearce. 



54 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



not in every instance duly sanctified witli 
prayer. It is not, therefore, at all surprising 
that his mind was occasionally perplexed with 
doubts, although we have the most decisive 
testimony that he never departed from "the 
faith once delivered to the saints." Some un-. 
guarded remarks, however, made in the hearing 
of persons who knew nothing of the track by 
which a powerful and original intellect seeks to 
arrive at the truth, caused him to fall under the 
suspicion of heresy ; and it was reported that 
he denied the doctrines of original sin, and the 
proper divinity and atonement of Christ. These 
unfounded reports were, in his absence, most 
ungenerously spread through the circuit in 
which he laboured ; and by these his character 
was so much injured, that, on going one even- 
ing to one of his appointments he found the 
house in which he was to have preached closed 
against him ; he was refused permission to ad- 
dress the congregation ; and was denied even 
a night's lodging where he had often been re- 
ceived " as an angel of God." Mr. Watson, 
who till then was entirely ignorant of the re- 
ports that had been circulated respecting him, 
was utterly astounded by the repulse which he 
met with ; it was more than his spirit was able 
to brook ; and he resented it so much that he 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



55 



immediately withdrew from liis work as an 
itinerant preacher. 

The manner in which ]\Ir. Watson was treat- 
ed was highly censurable and injurious. In- 
stead of circulating reports to his disadvantage, 
those who suspected his orthodoxy should have 
endeavoured to convince him of his supposed 
errors ; and then, if his explanations were not 
satisfactory, should have brought the matter 
before the constituted authorities of the church. 
By this just and constitutional process, the ac- 
cused would have had an opportunity of meet- 
ing his accusers, and answering for himself. 
No such course, however, w^as taken ; and the 
first notice which he had of the existence of 
these suspicions, was the rude repulse we have 
just mentioned. 

But Avhile it is contended that Mr. Watson 
v/as treated with flagrant injustice, it must be 
admitted, on the other hand, that the manner in 
which he resented that treatment was equally 
inexcusable. There was nothing in the cir- 
cumstances of the case, either to call for or to 
justify his retirement from the work. It is true 
that he could not have continued his public 
labours with any hope of comfort or success, 
under the imputations which were then cast 
upon him ; but he does not seem to have used 



56 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



the requisite means to clear himself. As it 
was not pretended that he had ever preached 
erroneous doctrines, there can be little doubt but 
that a frank and explicit disavowal of the dan- 
o-erous errors he was said to hold, would at 
once have silenced the voice of suspicion ; and 
if it had not, the Discipline of the church v/ould 
have afforded him effectual protection. But his 
spirit was high and unbending. Instead of 
obeying the apostolic injunction, " Let not your 
good be evil spoken of," he despised the popu- 
lar clamour which was raised against him. He 
felt that he possessed powers and knowledge 
greater than those of which his principal ac- 
cusers could boast ; and he would not stoop to 
defend himself against their unjust aspersions. 

By forsaking the ministry, too, he wandered 
out of his providential path ; and, like another 
Jonah, " fled from the presence of the Lord." 
No divinely appointed minister of the gospel is 
at liberty to leave the work at his own option. 
His Master has appointed him his appropriate 
sphere of labour, and his Master only can dis- 
miss him from the allotted service. " Throuoh 
evil report, and through good report," he is to 
remember that " a dispensation of the gospel is 
committed to him" by its Author ; and that a " v/o" 
is denounced against him if he " preach it not." 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



57 



It would be difficult to point out any minister 
of modem times who had more satisfactory 
proofs of a divine call to the pastoral office than 
Richard Watson. He was made, in very early 
life, the subject of deep piety ; he possessed 
abilities of no common order ; Providence had 
in a remarkable manner prepared the way for 
his entrance into the work ; and the blessing 
of God had so far attended his labours as to 
render them successful in the conversion of 
many souls from the error of their ways. Un- 
der these circumstances, therefore, he certainly 
did wrong in resigning his ministry. The 
means of redress for the grievance he had sus- 
tained were within his reach ; but, instead of 
availing himself of them, he chose rather, under 
the influence of temptation and resentment, to 
take the matter into his own hands ; and the 
affecting record stands in the Minutes of con- 
ference for the year 1801, ^'Richard Watson 
has desisted from travelling by his own choice." 
By this unadvised step, Vv^hich he afterward 
deeply repented, his personal comfort and pub- 
lic usefulness suffered a serious interruption. 
In reference to it he has often been heard to 
say, " I only regret that I did not lay my case 
before my brethren and leave myself in their 
hands ;" and this sentiment he repeated, with 



58 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



considerable emotion, only a few days before 
his death. 

On leaving the Methodist ministry, Mr. Wat- 
son did not unite himself with any other body 
of Christians. He entered into business with 
a respectable local preacher at Hinckley ; but 
he soon gave it up, and went to live at Castle- 
Donington, where he married Miss Henshaw, 
a young lady of genuine piety, and of suitable 
accomplishments. In his marriage he was 
happy, but in nothing else. He felt that he had 
left the path of duty ; and his mind was ill at ease. 
His moral character was unimpeachable, but his 
spiritual enjoyments were in a great measure 
lost. Direct religious intercourse with his 
Christian friends was at length discontinued, 
and even his attendance upon public worship 
for a few months was irregular. He laboured 
with exemplary diligence to establish himself 
in business, as a means of honest subsistence ; 
but nothing prospered in his hands. His spi- 
rituality of mind, too, became greatly endanger- 
ed, and the upbraidings of his conscience be- 
cause he had laid aside the ministry to which 
he had been called, and solemnly set apart, 
were sometimes overwhelming. 

His father-in-law, Mr. Henshaw, was a zeal- 
ous local preacher in the Methodist New Con- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



59 



neetion ;* and Mr. Watson was induced at this 
time, with a reference to his personal salvation, 
to unite liimself to a small society belonging to 
that denomination, at Hemmington, an agricul- 
tural village about a mile from Castle Doning- 
ton. His conduct from this time exhibits, in a 
striking manner, his simplicity and godly sin- 
cerity. The leader of the class was a farmer's 
labourer, of plain manners, and humble capa- 
city ; and the other members were mostly of 
the same rank in society. The class met on 
the evening of a week day ; and, notwithstand- 
ing the distance, Mr. Watson's attendance was 
punctual and regular. He was seldom known 
to be absent ; and as he was generally the first in 

* Soon after the death of Mr. Wesley, there arose a dis- 
sension among the Methodists on the subject of church 
government ; and some of the preachers, with a consider- 
able number of private members, being dissatisfied with 
the manner in which the question was settled by the con- 
ference, separated, and formed another society which they 
called the Methodist New Connection. They hold pre- 
cisely the same doctrines as the Wesleyans ; their only 
difference being in the matter of church government. At 
the head of this secession was the Rev. Alexander Kil- 
ham ; and hence, the members of the Methodist New 
Connection are frequently termed Kilhamites. They are 
at the present time a highly respectable, though not very 
numerous, body of Christians. 



60 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



attendance, lie often unlocked the door and open- 
ed the shutters of the little chapel in which they 
met. and got every thing in readiness for the 
meeting. His religious improvement was very 
rapid. His piety soon regained its wonted ar- 
dour and stability ; and it was not long before he 
was requested to officiate as a local preacher 
among his new friends. His preaching being 
generally approved, it was proposed to him to 
become an itinerant preacher among them. To 
this he promptly acceded ; and it is impossible 
for language to»express the joyous feelings with 
which he resumed the labours of the regular 
ministry, after a painful interval of two years and 
a half. He was sent, in the first instance, to 
the Manchester circuit to supply the place of 
another preacher ; and on receiving this ap- 
pointment, he hastened w^ith a light step and a 
bounding heart to the sphere of his labours. 

On his admission into the New Connection, 
Mr. Watson underwent a very strict examination 
as to the correctness of his doctrinal vi(3ws, in 
which he gave the most perfect satisfaction ; 
but in the matter of church government, a sub- 
ject in which he then felt but little interest, no 
questions were proposed to him. 

He arrived at Manchester in the autumn of 
1803, and it was arranged that he should re- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



61 



side at Stockport. Here he ^vas not only re- 
spected by his own people, but also lived on 
terms of intimacy with some of the ^lethodists 
of the Wesleyan connection. During his stay 
m this place, there arose a dispute in the AVes- 
loyan society respecting the use of instrumental 
music in public worship. It appears that some 
influential members of the AVesleyan society at 
Stockport had succeeded in introducing into 
their chapel several musical instmrnents, al- 
though such a course was expressly forbidden 
by a rule of the conference, and Avas disap- 
proved by a large portion of the society. The 
musical party was supported by the superin- 
tendent of the circuit, the Rev. Lawrence Kane, 
but was opposed by the other preachers. 
Mr. Watson wrote a satirical pamphlet in re- 
ference to this dispute, which was published 
under the title of " The Book of Kane.''' It was a 
smart and clever production, and afforded 
amusement to witty people, at the expense of 
an erring individual, and of the parties by whom 
he was supported ; but as the writer belonged 
to another religious denomination, and was not 
immediately interested in the question at issue, 
it v/ould perhaps have been better had he for- 
borne to interfere. The object of the publica- 
tion was to discourage what Yix. Watson be- 



62 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

lieved to be a serious evil, the use of musical 
instruments in public worship ; the motives of 
the author were, therefore, praiseworthy. We 
cannot, however, commend the form in which 
the pamphlet was v/ritten. The style was an 
imitation of the historical books of the Old Tcs- 
tam.ent, and therefore presented an example of 
that levity which connects sacred things with 
ridicule, and which is equally opposed to Chris- 
tian piety and good taste. No man had a 
deeper conviction of the evil of such sallies of 
perverted ingenuity, or more rigidly abstained 
from them, both in his conversation and writ- 
ings, than did Mr. Watson in the subsequent 
years of his life. 

On resuming the full duties of the Christian 
ministry, Mr. Watson applied himself to study 
with a diligence and ardour peculiar to himself ; 
and his " profiting appeared unto all." His 
preaching often displayed an energy and a 
vigour, both of thought and expression, w^hich 
gave strong indications of future eminence. 
His ministry was attended by several persons 
who refused to unite in church fellowship with 
any denomination of Christians; and with a 
special reference to their case, he preached 
three sermons at Stockport, on the duty and 
advantages of Christian communion. He la- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



63 



boured in the discharge of his duties with 
fidehty and zeal ; and though his health was 
but feeble, he often, like his divine Master, 
preached in the open air, seeking, in order tha 
lie might save, the lost. 

During his residence at Stockport he occa- 
sionally contributed to the pages of the Method- 
ist New Connection Magazine. In the early 
part of the volume for 1806 is inserted a ser- 
mon of his on religious meditation, founded on 
Gen. xxiv, 63, — " And Isaac went out to medi- 
tate in the fields at the eventide.^'' This was the 
first pulpit discourse that he ever prepared for 
publication. About the same time, too, he pub- 
lished, at the request of the congregation to 
whom it was addressed, a sermon on Hosea iv, 
6, preached in behalf of the Sunday school con- 
nected with the chapel in which he regularly 
officiated. These sermons contain passages of 
considerable force and beauty, and reflect great 
credit upon both the abilities and piety of the 
author. 

Among other w^orks which Mr. Watson care- 
fully studied at this period of his life w^as 
Stackhouse's " Body of Divinity," a large folio 
volume of great research, compiled principally 
from the w^ritings of the English Episcopal 
divines. His copy of this work contains nu- 



64 



IJFE OF RICHARD V/ATSON, 



meroLis manuscript notes, which are dated 
" Stockport, Cheshire," and some of which dis- 
play considerable acuteness. For the pm'pose 
of illustrating his habits of attention, a few 
specimens may be given. 

In page 282, Stackhouse suggests, '-that the 
parley between the serpent and Eve might have 
been of long continuance, though it is briefly 
set down by Moses an opinion for which 
he assigns several reasons. Mr. Watson ob- 
serves, — A subject of no importance at all ; 
but these remarks are certainly forcible. For, 
evil being contrary to the constitution of their 
nature, there must needs have been very strong 
temptations to overcome the natural tendency 
of the will to obedience ; and these temptations 
must first become familiar, by being often re- 
peated, to remove that disgust which they at first 
sight were likely to create. Some time they 
must have had to operate upon the passions, 
unless we suppose Eve to have been taken by 
surprise, which is not at all probable." 

Stackhouse proposes, p. 289, a number of 
questions respecting God's permission of the 
fall of Adam, with suggestions of means by 
which it might have been prevented. Mr. Wat- 
son writes, " The best answer to such queries 
is Here is a fact, which cannot be disproved. 



LIFE OF RICHARD V/ATSON. 



65 



Man is fallen. The whys and the wherefores 
belong not to us, but to God. ^ Who hath 
knov/n the mind of the Lord?'" 

Stackhouse says, p. 574, " This was the na- 
tural effect of sin in all ages, that it, filling 
men's minds with dreadful apprehensions of 
God, and making them afraid to approach him 
of themselves, drove them to the necessity either 
of giving off all intercourse with him, or of find- 
ing out some other to make intercession for 
them ; and this seems to have given rise to the 
first institution of demon worship among the 
Gentiles." Mr. Watson remarks, " I do not 
think that this accounts for demon worship. 
Did not men become gross in their conceptions 
of the divine nature, and give to God a far-dis- 
tant locality ; and then invent these imaginary 
beings to act, not only as intercessors, but as 
messengers between them and the far-distant 
gods V 

These hasty memoranda are not given as the 
mature thoughts of Mr. Watson, or as in every 
instance solving the difficulties to which they 
refer ; but to show the habit of strict investiga- 
tion which he had formed. He wisely read, 
not to fill his mind with indigested notions, 
" but to weigh and consider." The happy con- 
sequences of this course became increasingly 
5 



66 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



manifest as he advanced in life. He became 
an example of extensive and well-digested 
reading. 

After a stay of two years and a half, Mr. 
Watson was removed, in 1806, from the Man- 
chester circuit to Liverpool, where he was sta- 
tioned alone. Here his preaching excited con- 
siderable attention, and Christians of various 
denominations, especially the Wesleyan Me- 
thodists, both preachers and private members, 
were often found assembled round his pulpit, 
listening with deep emotion to a ministry equally 
orginal, evangelical, and impressive. 

Mr. Watson's pastoral duties at Liverpool 
were very light ; he had reg-ularly to supply 
one small chapel in the town, and this was 
nearly all the official duty that devolved upon 
him. He had, therefore, ample leisure for 
study ; and his ministry and writings, during 
the remainder of his life, fully demonstrate how 
well he improved it. 

At Manchester Mr. Watson had formed a 
permanent friendship with several individuals, 
and with some of them he maintained, for many 
years, an affectionate correspondence. The 
following are extracts of letters which he wrote 
during the first year of his residence at Liver- 
pool : — 



LIFE OF RICHARD 'WATSOX. 



67 



" To Mr. Thomas Faulkner. Manchester. 

"Liverpool Jidy 2d. 1S06. 
Dear >^ir. — By another rerolution of tlie 
wheel of human vicisshude, I am found in 
Liverpool ; and as I am unwilling to believe 
that my friends are so perfectly uninterested as 
not to wish to know how as well as where I 
am. I have sat down to scribble four epistles 
for one post. The air of this place I found, for 
the first four or five days, to be extremely pierc- 
ing. I was unwell, and my hard-belaboured 
lungs, *' shot pangs, strange pangs ; and. as I 
thought, prophetic of their end/" I thank God, 
however, that they proved to be of a more as- 
similating nature than I apprehended ; and the 
air and they appear to have entered into a 
closer alliance, and more strict terms of friend- 
ship. I have bathed, and it has been bene- 
ficial ; I walk along the shore, and enjoy the 
double advantage of solitude and exercise, me- 
ditation and animal refreshment. Could I trans- 
plant my old friends to Liverpool, or the ad- 
vantages of Liverpool to my old friends, ] 
should think myself the happiest man on earth , 
but ' shall it be as thou wilt V Xature has 
not formed me in one of those rugged moulds, 
nor of those rigid materials, which cannot relax 



68 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



and feel. I have felt most sensibly my sepa- 
ration from that little chosen band with whom 
I have spent so many hours of improvement 
and pleasure. The remembrance is equally 
painful and pleasing ; and it is painful in pro- 
portion to the pleasure. I should think worse 
of myself if I did not feel, though I have felt 
more than I expected. 

" My situation is in every respect comfort- 
able ; and I doubt not will remain so. I thank 
God for an increasing attachment in my own 
mind to his religion and to his work. He is 
my God, and I will exalt him. Religion, my 
dear sir, is all. It is Heaven's greatest gift to 
man. Fairest, loveliest form in heaven, she has 
made her dwellinor with man, and her delio^ht 
is with the sons of men. All the fabled power 
of enchantment belongs to her, and to her alone. 
She appears, and the desert blossoms as a rose ; 
the darkness of human nature vanishes ; every 
object is gilded with her light ; and the im- 
mensity beams with glory. She smiles, a id 
the heart is eased of its load of wo, affliction, 
and sorrows. Her eye darts pity, and her ac- 
cents breathe forgiveness. Wandering in er- 
ror, she shows us the path of life. Perverse 
and obstinate in misery, her influence controls 
us. Wandering from happiness, in the ardent 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



69 



pursuit of deceitful pleasures," she opens a vista 
to the skies, and lets loose the powers of the 
soul among the objects of an immortal life. Ce- 
lestial visitant, may we never forsake thee ! 
Whatever else we lose, may we possess thee ! 
To whatever separations the changing scene 
of this present life painfully subjects us, may 
we ever be joined to thee, and become one 
spirit with thee ! 

" I feel sincerely attached to every part of 
your family. May they all be taught of God ; 
and may your decline of life be cheered with 
the happy prospect of leaving them all in pos- 
session of that most invaluable treasure, prin- 
ciples pure and evangelical, and a conduct 
regulated by just views of God, and faith in 
Jesus Christ ! Yours very affectionately. 

" P. S. Our children are well ;* but Mrs. 
Watson continues poorly. Liverpool has not 
made any alteration for the better in her health." 

Our next extracts are rather lengthy, but they 
will amply repay a careful perusal. They are 
from letters addressed to Mr. John Faulkner, 
son of the preceding, who was then a lively 
young.^ man, well disposed, but not decidedly 
pious. Mr. Watson, therefore, directs his at- 

* Mr. Watson had two children ; a son named Thomas, 
and a daughter Mary. 



70 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



tention to subjects of the highest importance, 
and recommends to him true religion under the 
name of virtue." 

" To John Faulkner. 

^'Liverpool, Septemher i3(h, 1806. 
?^Iy Dear Lad, — You desire me to ATOte 
you a long letter. I will, though 1 should tire 
your patience. But I will not fill it with tri- 
fles, because I have too much attachment to 
you ; and because you have too much good 
sense to desire it. You are now in the most 
important stage of life. You occupy the anx- 
ieties, and inherit the warmest wishes of your 
friends. Xow is the time for you to acquire 
that knowledge, to form those principles, to 
engTave that character upon your mind, which 
shall favour your entrance into life, and direct 
you with safety through it. * * * 

* * There are two objects to which your at- 
tention is imperatively called, — knowledge and 
virtue ; children of the same parent, insepara- 
ble companions, and mutual helpers of the hap- 
piness of man. The importance and value of 
the first I need not attempt to prove. ^' That 
the soul be without knowledge, it is not good,' 
and that none but fools love folly, are positions 
of one of the wisest of men, which neither you 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 7i 

nor I shall question. Kno\vledge is the food 
of the mind, the support of its vigour, and the 
parent of its growth. There is a capacity of 
improvement in the human intellect, of which 
the more v/e avail ourselves, the gTeater am- 
plitude and greatness of soul we acquire ; the 
more we honour God by the improvement of 
his gifts ; the more real dignity we associate 
with our characters ; the more worthy we are 
of the appellations of rational and immortal ; and 
the better are we iitted for every useful purpose 
in life. The objects of human knowledge, 
however, being almost infinite, we must select 
those which our time and opportunit}' place 
within our reach ; taking care that whatever 
we fix upon, it shall be capable of afibrding us 
solid and useful information. Have you not 
seen with disgust a pert, two-legged animal, 
miscalled a man, on whom a decent education 
has been thrown away, or its effects been an- 
nihilated by a passion for novel reading ? His 
imagination, heated by fiction, and, like a bal- 
loon filled with inflammable air, ascending the 
higher in proportion as the solidity of judgment 
is separated from it, he acts a contemptible and 
romantic part in common life ; he offends by 
his ceaseless loquacity; he insults by his igno- 
rance ; he becomes intolerable, because he bur- 



72 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



lesques and caricatures human nature. Sen- 
sible conversation is to such a being insipid ; 
sober-minded men constitute a company irk- 
some and repulsive ; he glitters, but does not 
shine ; he tattles, but does not talk ; his stage 
is the tea-table, and his audience love-sick 
lasses. 

With the names of honour, friendship, and vir- 
tue on his lips, he is base, treacherous, and 
licentious. From reading of this kind, little is 
to be gained but sponginess of intellect, pert- 
ness of demeanour, and an unnatural character. 

" Let us seek solid information in history^ 
which makes us acquainted with our forefathers ; 
philosophy, which displays the wondrous works 
of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness ; geog- 
raphy^ which is conversant with the abodes, 
habitudes, and relations of men ; astronomy, 
which carries us to distant worlds, and colonies 
from heaven ; and above all in theology, which 
leads us even to the throne of God, and displays 
his glory ; — which unfolds the amazing scene 
of human redemption, and enables us to behold 
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth ; — explains the causes of the jnisery 
we all feel, and promises the happiness we all 
wish ; — raises the degraded spirit from the ser- 
vitude of vice, and restores it to honour, to dig- 



LIFE OF RICHARD V.MTSOX. 



73 



nity, to holiness ; — forms the purpose of return 
in tlie heart of the restless and unhappy fugi- 
tive, aids the execution, and withdraws not her 
inflAence till she hath placed us in the forgiving 
bosom of eternal Love, and in the unalienable 
fruition of life and immortality. This is kno^^- 
ledge, rational, exalting, benehcial, and im- 
mortal. 

Having introduced you to knowledge, let 
me have the honour of presenting you also to 
virtue. You have the greatest reason to be 
thankful that you have examples of virtue in 
those who continually surround you, and whose 
influence is strengthened by natural relation- 
ship as well as religion. To their well ^vishes 
I would join my own. * * * * 
There is nothing so beautiful, so svN^eet as vir- 
tue. * * * Ir is easy to 
talk and boast of pleasure ; but in the opinion 
of a reasonable being, no gratification that is 
inconsistent Tvith peace and purity- can merit so 
agreeable a name. Tirtue is the source, and 
the only source of pleasure. Thus sung the 
immortal [Milton : — 

' He that has light within his own clear breast 

May sit i* th* centre, and enjoy bright day ; 

But he that hides a dark sonl, and fonl thoughts. 

Benighted walks under the mid-day sun : 

Himself is his own dungeon." 



74 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



Did religion do nothing but save us from 
the reproaches of our own hearts, it would do 
much ; it would, on this account, be in the 
highest sense of the word estimable ; for a 
' wounded spirit who can bear V Where shall 
we look for happiness if not within ? Should this 
foresake us, what a gloom is thrown over life ! 
what a house of darkness is the world ! what a 
wretch is man ! ' Thine heart,' says an offend- 
ed God to a sinner, ' thine heart shall meditate 
terror ;' and what then shall sooth and condole 
us ? what human skill can devise a balm to 
heal wounds inflicted by Heaven ? The attempt 
were vain. It would irritate and inflame, but 
not heal. From the dark abyss, the dismal 
chaos of a condemning mind, but one hand can 
draw us, and that is the hand of mercy ; and 
what may add to our consolation, a hand never 
solicited in vain. It shall bring our feet out of 
the mire and the clay, and set them upon a 
rock. Silencing our fears, and saving us from 
our doubts, we shall bear the noble testimony 
of the apostle, ' Our hearts condemn us not, 
and we have confidence toward God.' But it 
does more for us ; it gives a positive happiness, 
fills the void over which we languish, satisfies 
the hungry soul, and makes glad the sorrowful 
soul, opens springs in the wilderness, and rivers 



LIFE OF UICHARD WATSOX. 



75 



in the desert, makes our cup to run ov^er with 
blessino's, and anoints us with the oil of oiad- 
ness. Virtue gives whatever is great and good 
in man. Honour, probity, fidelity, sympathy, 
friendship, social and domestic happiness ; all 
these are but empty sounds in the mouth of any 
but a virtuous character. She gives joys which 
vice never, with all her flattering promises, 
pretends to offer ; and bestows a zest, a relish 
upon those that are common to all, which they 
cannot have without her. Her influence 
spreads through life, diverges into every con- 
dition, penetrates into every state ; the guardian 
of youth, the honour of manhood, and the crown 
of age ; the shield of prosperity, and the prop 
of affliction ; our guide in actual life, and our 
solace in retirement. She holds the keys of life, 
and vvill finally open to us the gate of immor- 
tality. 

" I must now leave you. Believe me when 
I say that I wish you every thing that can make 
you useful and happy." 

" To Mr. John Faulkner^ of Manchester. 

''Liverpool, Feb. 9th, 1807. 
"My Dear Sir, — I have embraced the pre- 
sent opportunity to send a short epistle, accord- 
ing to promise ; but have a horrid pen, and the 



76 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



penknife is mislaid. We returned from Man- 
chester, is you saw, thick and three-fold in the 
vehicle ; but arrived safe. Danger, however, 
is neither confined to adventurous voyaging in 
the mighty world of waters, nor to those ter- 
rene conveyances, when you trust your neck to 
a slender spring and a drunken coachman. She 
possesses a kind of omnipresence ; and suc- 
cessfully wields a thunder storm, or a grain of 
sand ; and accomplishes her purposes by 
means great and small, dreaded and despised. 
Somehov/ or other, it appears that I had incur- 
red the wrath of the old beldame ; and the 
punishment she chose in her wisdom to inflict 
was a subterraneous plunge into one of those 
mantraps with which her prime ministers in 
Liverpool have so plentifully bestrewed the 
streets. Whether she intended to break my 
neck or my leg, to perforate my skull, or to 
dislocate my shoulder, I shall not now deter- 
mine ; though the fall was sufficient for all 
these ; but my guardian angel brought me off 
with only a sprained knee, which I take as a 
friendly memento. It has a voice which says, 
' Walk more carefully in the night, lest a worse 
thing happen unto thee.' 

" Seriously, I have hurt myself very much, and 
am yet confined to the house. My journey to 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



77 



Chester was attended with circumstances both 
painful and pleasing. Travelling in pain, 
preaching in still greater, with a leg swelled to 
four times its natural size, and highly inflamed ; 
dragged to and from the chapel in a gig, and 
confined, when in the house, to its precincts ; 
going into the town in the dark, and leaving it 
before light, without any gratification arising 
from the novelty of a place not visited before ; 
tossed upon the river on my return, so as neither 
to sit nor stand; — these, and other circum- 
stances, were not the most pleasing. On the 
other hand, the kind attentions of friends, a sense 
of the divine presence, and a tolerable degree of 
freedom in preaching the word, may be balanced 
against the former ; and, on the whole, I have 
nothing to regret, though the exertion has pro- 
tracted the recovery of my limb. Next sab- 
bath I preach a funeral sermon in Mount Plea- 
i sant chapel, belonging to the old friends, who 
have lent it to us for the occasion ; and to-mor- 
row I expect to dine in company with the 
preachers. Being confined, I have not had an 

opportunity to call upon Miss , with the 

message of your beloved. I shall call when I can 
J' walk ; but I suppose that it will be a few days 
i longer. Now we are upon the subject, let me 
j say that I am glad you are in love. With the 



78 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

object of your affection I have not the pleasure 
to be acquainted ; but have no doubt she is 
every way worthy of it. It is equally condu- 
cive to happiness and rectitude to form an 
honourable attachment of that kind. The hu- 
man heart is formed for love ; and love and 
friendship are among those efficacious causes 
which the oroodness of the divine Beins^ hath 
still left on earth to humanize the soul, and 
soften the asperities of life. In that connection 
be sincere. If you have made your choice with 
deliberation, abide by it. Caprice is at enmity 
with love. There must be an unbounded con- 
fidence and exclusive preference. The heart 
must be kept free from suspicion, and every 
wish must beat in unison. It must not be un- 
noticed, that esteem is the only sure basis of 
love. Build it upon whatever else you please, 
— on youth, on beauty, on wealth, on affability 
of temper, on diligence, on assiduity, — all will 
fail but virtue ; and the fondest affection, by de- 
grees will sink into indifference, carelessness, 
aversion, and perhaps hatred. Just views of 
God, a conduct regulated by them, the temper 
of the heart softened by divine influence, su- 
preme love to the Author of all our benefits, a 
calm, tranquil confidence in his mercy and 
guidance through the promise of his Son, and 



LIFE OF RICHARD Vv'ATSOX. 



79 



a constant endeavour to approve yourselves 
to him in all the public and private Vv'alks of 
life : these will make you acceptable to each 
other ; you will reflect with pleasure upon the 
commencement of your acquaintance, you will 
bless the Providence which has made you the 
sharers of each other's griefs and joys ; and, 
after having filled up the offices of life, you will 
find your friendship and love made perfect in a 
better and heavenly state. I feel much inte- 
rested in your Vv-elfare. ^lay the gracious Be- 
ing who superintends the affairs of his unworthy 
creatures, guide you by his counsel, and dis- 
tinguish your future lives with the communica- 
tion of every necessaiy blessing of life and 
salvation. Present my sincere respects to your 
unknown. My most affectionate remembrances 
to the whole family." 



80 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

CHAPTER lY. 

Mr. Watson is admitted into full connection with the confer- 
ence — Is returned to Liverpool — Writes a history of that town, 
and of the reign of George III. — Assists in the management of a 
weekly paper — Letter to Mr. Faulkner — Appointed a third year to 
Liverpool — Pubhshes a letter to Mr. Roscoe — Failure of iiis health 
— Return to Liverpool as a supernumerary — Instance of his readi- 
ness at preaching — Resumes his ministry, and is appointed to 
Manchester circuit— Expository preaching — Lord Sidmouth's bill 
— Mr. Watson's health again fails — He leaves the New Connec- 
tion and rejoins the Wesleyan Society — Settles at Liverpool— Im- 
provement of his health — Resumes his ministry among the Wes- 
leyans — Letter to his father — His father's death. 

At the conference in 1807, Mr. Watson, 
having finished the period of his probation as a 
minister in the Methodist New Connection, was 
admitted into full connection. His brethren 
showed their estimate of his character by ap- 
pointing him secretary of the conference at the 
same time. They also requested him to write 
the annual pastoral address to the societies. 

Being reappointed to Liverpool, Mr. Watson 
returned to that town, where he contimied his 
acceptable ministry, and occasionally exer- 
cised himself in literary composition. He com- 
piled a popular history and description of 
Liverpool, which was published in a neat 
pocket volume, by his friend Mr. Kaye, and 
was well received, both by the natives and by 
strangers who visited the place. At the re- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



81 



quest of the same friend, he also wrote a brief 
history of the reign of George III., as a con- 
tinuation of Dr. Goldsmith's " Abridgment of the 
History of England." It occupies about seventy 
closely printed duodecimo pages, and contains 
some spirited sketches of the characters of emi- 
nent individuals, and of public events. In the 
management of a weekly journal, called the 
Liverpool Courier, which Mr. Kaye commenced 
publishing about this tim.e, Mr. Watson lent his 
valuable assistance. He wrote the prospectus, 
and also many of the leading articles, which 
were so much admired that they were regular- 
ly copied and circulated through the country 
by one of the most popular of the London daily 
papers, [the Courier,] which had not, however, 
the honesty to acknowledge the source from 
w^hich they were derived. 

In the midst of his engagements and studies 
Mr. Watson did not neglect his correspondence 
with his friends. The following letter, which 
was addressed, in December, 1807, to Mr. 
Faulkner, jun., manifests the kindness of his 
heart, and his anxiety to turn a painful bereave- 
ment to the spiritual benefit of a young friend : — 

" Dear Sir, — I was affected, but not sur- 
prised, to hear of the death of your sister 
6 



82 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

From events of this kind much good may be 
derived, however painful they may be to our 
feelings. 

' Smitten friends are messengers of love : 
For us they sicken, and for us they die.' 

The fervent glow of life does but waste the oi 
of the lamp which sustains its light ; and our 
approaches to vigour and manhood are but ap- 
proaches to the grave. Few love to think on 
death. The thought is not pleasing. It can- 
not, with its melancholy reflections ; and it is 
not necessary that it should constantly occupy 
our minds. But it is necessary that it should 
occupy them more than perhaps it does ; and 
the death of friends imperiously forces the sub- 
ject upon us. The wise consider their latter 
end, and make it their business to divest its 
approaches of alarm ; and so to live, that the 
last act of life, the act of dying, may be honour- 
able to their memories, and easy to their minds. 
' For me to live is Christ,' says an apostle, 
' and to die is gain ;' and it is only such a life 
that can produce such a death. The living 
faith of a Christian realizes unseen objects, and 
gives them, even in this world, a present sub- 
sistence. Hence his better thoughts repose in 
heaven ; and though he is in the world, he is 
not of the world. He enters now by faith 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



83 



where Jesus his forerunner is entered ; and 
death only brings him personally into that region 
in which by faith and love he had his dwelling 
place before. Two things prepare us either 
for life or death: an interest in Christ; and a 
firm and settled intention to please him in our 
conduct. May they be possessed by you ! 

' Then when the last, the closing hour draws nigh, 
And earth recedes before my swimming eye ; 
WTien trembling on the doubtful edge of fate, 
I stand, and stretch my Tiew^s to either state ; 
Teach me to quit this transitory scene 
With decent triumph, and a look serene ; 
Teach me to fix my ardent hopes on high, 
And, having lived to thee, in thee to die.' 

" I have been indisposed from a severe cold. 
Little Tom is ill of the measles ; and Mrs. 
Watson is very unwell. I write in haste, and 
have not time to add more." 

At the conference of the New Connection in 
1808 Mr. Watson was a second time appoint- 
ed secretary, and was also again requested to 
write the annual pastoral address. His health 
being at that time too delicate to allow him to 
perform the duties of an extensive circuit, he 
was a third time returned to Liverpool, where 
he had not much travelling, and was conse- 
quently but little exposed to the night air. The 



84 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



interest excited by his preaching suffered no 
abatement. His ministry during this year was 
more successful than it had been in either of the 
preceding ones. Many of those who had been 
attracted to the chapel by the fame of his elo- 
quence, were brought to a serious concern for 
their spiritual welfare, and led anxiously to in- 
quire what they must do to be saved ; and the lit- 
tle society under his pastoral care was strength- 
ened by the addition of sixty-five members. 
He also published, in the course of this year, 
" A Letter to William Roscoe, Esq.," being a 
reply to a pamphlet, written by that gentleman, 
on the subject of the war with France, in which 
England was then engaged. 

Meanwhile Mr. Watson's health continued 
to decline ; and he was, therefore, at the con- 
ference in May, 1809, returned to Li erpool as a 
supernumerary.* Three years before, he had 
complained, in one of his letters, that his lungs 
were affected ; and that the manner in which 
they laboured appeared to him " prophetic of 
their end." These unfavourable symptoms, 
however, at that time subsided ; but they now 
returned, and presented a most alarming appear- 

^ Mr. Watson's colleague this year was the Rev. Ro- 
bert Nicholson, Vv^ho soon after left the Methodist New 
Connection, and joined the Wesleyan conference. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



85 



anc8. The blood oozed from his lungs, and he 
was compelled for a time almost entirely to de- 
sist from preaching. In a letter which he 
wrote to a friend, in the month of November, 
lie says : — " "With respect to my health, I con- 
tinue in a very precarious state. I am not 
wholly free from the spitting of blood, and have 
almost constant pain in my breast. I at pre- 
sent preach little, and with difficulty perform 
that share of duty ; but I feel that all things 
are most wisely ordered by a kind and gracious 
Providence ; and rest with full confidence upon 
this great truth, that ' all things work together 
for good to them that love God.' 

This comparative cessation from preaching 
proved so beneficial to his health, that in a 
few months he was enabled to resume his pulpit 
labours with some degree of frequency. He 
delivered a series of discourses on the attri- 
butes of God, and another on the Epistle to the 
Hebrews ; both of which were greatly admired, 
and rendered very profitable to his hearers. 

Mr. Watson possessed such a fulness of in- 
formation on all subjects connected with theo- 
logy, and had such a copious command of lan- 
guage, that he was almost constantly prepared 
to preach on any occasion, however peculiar 
and difficult. Of this he gave a striking proof 



86 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

on one occasion during this year. While he 
was in the chapel attending divine service on a 
Sunday morning, the steeple of a neighbouring 
church fell with a tremendous crash upon the 
congregation, and many lives were lost. Mr. 
Watson was deeply affected by this catastro- 
phe ; and his impressions were strengthened 
by the fact that, not many minutes before, he 
had walked close by this building on his way 
to the chapel, unconscious of danger. As the 
time of the evening service approached, Mr. 
Nicholson expressed a wish that Mr. Watson 
would address the congregation, and suggested 
the following as a very appropriate text:- — "Or 
those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam 
fell, and slew them, think ye that they were 
sinners above all that dwelt in Jerusalem? I 
tell you nay : but except ye repent, ye shall all 
likewise perish." Luke xiii, 4, 5. Mr. Watson 
complied with the proposal ; and with scarcely 
any time for preparation, delivered to a crowd- 
ed assembly one of the most impressive and 
eloquent discourses that ever fell from his lips. 

At the conference of 1810, Mr. Watson was 
again, after an interval of four years, ap- 
pointed to the Manchester circuit. Here, as 
well as in Liverpool, several individuals be- 
longing to th^ Wesleyan connection were in 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 87 

the habit of frequently attending his ministry. 
His stated congregations, however, ^yere not 
large, nor did they seem in general duly to ap- 
preciate the excellence of his discourses. 

Anxious that the people to whom he minis- 
tered should understand the Scriptures, ]\Ir. 
Watson was accustomed to devote a large share 
of his pulpit labours to the exposition of entire 
portions of the sacred writings. Thus he had 
delivered to his congregation in Liverpool a 
course of lectures on the Epistle to the He- 
brews ; and he nov>' addressed a similar course 
on the Epistle to the Ephesians to a small, but 
select and deeply attentive congregation at a 
village near ^Manchester. This method of ex- 
pository preaching was a favourite one with the 
' old Puritan divines ; and it is matter of regret, 
that a practice so admirably adapted to instruct 
a congregation in those " Scriptures w^hich are 
able to make them wise unto salvation," is not 
more general at the present day.* 

*That distinguished comilientator, the Rev. Matthew 
Henry, was accustomed every sabbath morning, before the 
sermon, to read and expound to his congregation a portion 
of the Old Testament, proceeding recfularly from the book 
of Genesis ; and in the evening he expounded, with the 
same regularity, a portion of the Xew Testament. In 
this manner, during his ministry at Chester, he more than 
once went through the whole of the sacred oracles. No 



88 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

« 

During Mr. Watson's residence at Manches- 
ter, an insidious attempt was made, by some 
bigoted adherents of the established Church, to 
abridge the religious privileges of the Protestant 
dissenters. By the " Act of Toleration," pass- 
ed in the reign of William III., all Protestant 
teachers of religion who took certain prescribed 
oaths were protected by the law in their public 
ministrations, and were exempted from serving 
in the militia, and from many civil duties to 
which other citizens were liable ; and these 
oaths every magistrate was required to admi- 
nister to any person professing to be a preacher 
who should apply for that purpose. In the 
early part of 1811 a bill was introduced into 
the house of lords, by Lord Sidmouth, the 
professed object of which was merely so to 
amend and explain the " Act," as to prevent 
improper persons from taking the oaths and 
obtaining a license to preach, that they might 
exempt themselves from civil offices ; but its 
practical operation would have been exceed- 
ingly oppressive and annoying to all classes of 
dissenters, and especially to the Methodists. 

one acquainted with this fact, observes his biographer, will 
be surprised to learn that his congregation were, like the 
"noble Bereans," remarkable for their knowledge of 
Scripture. 



LIFE OF RICHARD AVATSOX. 



89 



Indeed, had it been made the law of the land, 
and strictly enforced, it would have effected the 
entire subversion of the Wesleyan ministry. 
The provisions of the " bill" vv^ere, however, so 
artfully framed that its pernicious tendency 
was not at first suspected, even by those whose 
dearest rights were so injuriously affected by it. 

It was at this time that Mr. Watson first be- 
came acquainted with the Rev, Jabez Bunting. 
Both these gentlemen had been preaching at 
Stockport one Sunday, and met on their way to 
Manchester in the evening, Avhen " Lord Sid- 
mouth's Bill" became the subject of conversa- 
tion. They both saw the evil consequences 
that would result from its becoming a law ; and 
Mr. Watson, at Mr. Bunting's request, wrote, 
and published in one of the ^lanchester papers, 
a stirring appeal to the dissenters, in which he 
clearly pointed out the design and tendency of 
the bill," and urged the necessity of an im- 
mediate and strenuous opposition to it. The 
alarm was also sounded in other places, and in 
a few days the nation was in a ferment. On 
the day that the bill was to have been read a 
second time, upward of six hundred petitions 
were presented against it and the advocates 

^ Of these petitions, two hundred and fifty, bearing thir- 
ty thousand signatures, were from Methodist societies, and 



90 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



of intolerance were so completely abashed by 
the opposition which their obnoxious measure 
had excited, that a motion to reject the bill was 
carried without a division. 

At the conference held in June, 1811, Mr. 
Watson was reappointed to the Manchester 
circuit ; but before the close of the year his 
health again failed him. The bleeding of his 
lungs returned, and there appeared little proba- 
bility that he would ever be able for any length 
of time to perform the duties of an itinerant 
preacher. He had long been dissatisfied with 
the discipline of the Methodist New Connec- 
tion, and therefore in some degree unhappy in 
his union with that body. He now came to 
the resolution of resigning the situation which 
he occupied in it ; and having done so, he re- 
moved to Liverpool, where, after the lapse of a 

were all got up in the course of five days. They were 
presented to the house of lords by the celebrated I.ord 
Erskine, who, in his speech on the occasion, bore an hon- 
ourable testimony to the character and usefulness of the 
venera^ble founder of Methodism. He was," said he, "a 
man with whom I had the honour to be acquainted ; 
whom I have heard expound ' the word of life ;' and whose 
labours have not been equalled, since the days of the apos- 
tles, for general usefulness to his fellow subjects. A man 
more pious and devoted, more loyal to his king, or more 
sincerely attached to his country, has never lived." 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 91 

few months, he offered himself as a private 
member of society in the Wesleyan Connec- 
tion. On his admission into the society he re- 
marked, with deep feeling, that then, for the 
first time during the last eleven years, his mind 
was fully at rest. 

In retiring from the Nev/ Connection he act- 
ed in accordance w4th the advice of some of 
his most intelligent and confidential friends be- 
longing to it ; they thought that, with his views, 
he would be likely to be both more happy and 
useful among his old associates, from whom he 
had formerly departed under the pressure of 
unkind treatment, and of strong temptation, and 
not from any difference of opinion, either as to 
doctrine or discipline. The manner in which 
he retired was highly honourable to him. He 
had joined the New Connection Methodists at 
a time when he was exceedingly anxious to en- 
ter again upon the regular duties of the Chris- 
tian ministry, and when every other door ap- 
peared to be closed against him ; and when, 
after a practical acquaintance with the system 
of church government adopted by them, he be- 
came dissatisfied with it, he made no attempt 
to disturb the tranquillity of the societies with 
which he was connected, but continued peace- 
fully to labour among them in word and in doc- 



92 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



trine, until he was by sickness rendered unable 
any longer to fulfil the duties of his ministry ; 
he then availed himself of the opportunity 
quietly to retire from the body, without attempt- 
ing to influence any of its members to follow 
his example. 

No hostile feelings on either side accompa- 
nied the separation. It was with the system 
that Mr. Watson was dissatisfied, and not with 
his brethren. From them he had received no- 
thing but kindness during the whole period of 
his connection with them. They had received 
him into their body when he was in a great 
measure friendless and an outcast ; had select- 
ed appointments for him suited to his feeble 
health ; and had placed him in almost every 
office of trust and honour, except that of presi- 
dent of the conference. His esteem and love 
for his brethren in the New Connection suffer- 
ed no abatement on his withdrawal from them ; 
and his subsequent and long-continued corres- 
pondence with several of his intimate friends 
in that body, shows that they still continued to 
regard him with feelings of affection and con- 
fidence. 

In leaving the New Connection he was far 
from being actuated by any motives of self- 
interest. He resigned a certciin income for that 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



93 



Avhfch was contingent; and his prospects in 
regard to temporal things were dark and dis- 
.couraging. He had made no arrangement what- 
ever for admission into the "Wesleyan ministry. 
Had his heahh been good, it was uncertain 
whether the Wesleyan conference would re- 
ceive him ; and there was little probability 
that a sickly man, wearing marks of consump- 
tion and decay, with a wife and two children, 
could be so admitted as to have, for himself 
and his famxily, a permanent claim upon the 
conference funds. Secular motives were there- 
fore out of the question. He obeyed the dictates 
of his understanding and conscience, in the in- 
tegrity of his heart, trusting in God ; and the 
important services which in the subsequent 
years of his life he was called to render to the 
cause of Christianity, both at home and abroad, 
fully demonstrate that, in taking this important 
step, he followed the leadings of a wise Provi- 
dence who was guiding him into paths of use- 
fulness, of w^hich neither he nor his friends had 
at that time any conception. 

Mr. Watson being now, as he believed, pro- 
videntially laid aside from the work of the 
ministry, engaged himself at an annual salary 
to his friend Mr. Kaye, as editor of the Liver- 
pool Courier, and for other literary services. 



94 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

Rest and quietness, however, were of such 
service to him, that his general health soon im- 
proved ; the bleeding of his lungs subsided ; 
and, feeling himself able to preach occasion 
ally, he was accepted as a local preacher, and 
at times occupied the Wesleyan pulpits, both 
in Liverpool and the surrounding country. 

When he settled at Liverpool he had little 
hope of ever being able to resume his itinerant 
labours ; but those who knew him best were 
assured that if his health should in any com- 
petent degree be restored, he would again fully 
devote himself to the Christian ministry. This 
he felt to be his special calling ; and he had no 
greater pleasure than to be employed in preach- 
ing Christ, and him crucified. The ministers 
then stationed on the circuit, — ^the Rev. Messrs. 
Entwisle, West, Gaulter, and Buckley, — hav- 
ing heard him preach, and believing him to be 
eminently qualified for extensive usefulness, 
united in requesting him to offer himself to the 
conference, again to take his place in the Wes- 
leyan travelling ministry ; and Mr. Bunting, 
who visited Liverpool at the time, earnestly 
joined in the solicitation. After due delibera- 
tion and prayer, he yielded to their entreaties, 
and was recommended to the district meeting, 
and afterward to the conference, who received 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 95 

him very cordially ; and without being subject- 
ed to any further probation, he was placed pre- 
cisely in the circumstances in which he stood, 
when, eleven years before, he left his work in 
the Hinckley circuit. Never did the Wesleyan 
conference receive into its communion a minis- 
ter of greater or more useful talents, or of more 
sound and enlightened piety ; and never was a 
Methodist preacher more ardently attached to 
his brethren, and to the doctrines and disci- 
pline of the society, than was Mr. Watson, 
from the time of his readmission in 1812, to 
the end of his days. 

In offering himself to the conference, Mr. 
Watson greatly disappointed the hopes of his 
friend Mr. Kaye, who had calculated much 
upon his valuable literary labours ; and he was 
far from consulting his own temporal advant- 
age. Proposals of a*very flattering nature were 
made to him at this time by persons in autho- 
rity, if he would remove to London, and em- 
ploy his pen in the public service ; but he was 
persuaded that the Lord had called him to an- 
other and more important work ; and he had 
felt too severely the consequences of disobe- 
dience to that voice in his earlier years, to 
hesitate for a moment in his choice between 
devoting himself to the Christian ministry, and 



96 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



any other pursuit, however apparently advan- 
tageous. 

Mr. Watson's first appointment after this hap- 
py reunion with his earliest religious asso- 
ciates was to the Wakefield circuit ; and with 
as little delay as possible he repaired to his 
field of labour. His colleague and superintend- 
ent, the Rev. James Buckley, says, — " We en- 
tered upon our work with much cordiality and 
affection, and met together every Saturday, to 
review the occurrences of the past week, and 
devise measures in relation to the future ; unit- 
ing in prayer for the divine direction, and the 
gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, ' that the 
word of the Lord might have free course and 
be glorified.' These meetings were attended 
with many advantages ; affording assistance in 
the choice of subjects, and in our preparations 
for the pulpit ; in carrying plans of discipline 
into practical effect ; and greatly tending to 
promote the unity of the Spirit. I had occa- 
sionally an opportunity of hearing my friend 
preach. His sermons were not always what 
are called great ; greatness appeared to bend 
to the profit of a particular class of his hearers; 
yet that might be said of every one of his ser- 
mons which a Scottish professor once said of a 
discourse delivered by Mr. Wesley : — ^ If it 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



97 



was not a masterly sermon, none but a master 
could have preached it.' " 

It was shortly after Mr. Watson's arrival in the 
Wakefield circuit that his biographer, Mr. Jack- 
son, first became acquainted with him. He 
came to Halifax to preach at the reopening of 
the Methodist chapel there, w^hich had just 
been considerably enlarged. His text w^as, 
" Thy children which thou shall have, shall say 
again in thine ears, ' The place is too strait for 
me ; give place to me that I may dwell^ " Isa. 
xlix, 20 ; and the subject of the discourse was 
the enlargement of the Christian church. Mr. 
Jackson had frequently before this heard Mr. 
Watson spoken of as a man of extraordinary 
talents, but he had no adequate conception of 
the greatness of his powers as a Christian 
preacher. He says, — " The sermon on this 
occasion was the loftiest display of intellect 
and eloquence I had ever witnessed. It exhi- 
bited such a grasp of thought, a force of rea- 
soning, and splendour of illustration, and at the 
same time was so rich in Christian sentiment 
and pious feeling, as to produce an almost over- 
whelming sensation of wonder and delight. 
The impression it made upon my mind will 
never be effaced. More than twenty years 
have elapsed since its delivery, but the re- 
7 



98 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



collection of it is as distinct and vivid as 
ever." 

In the latter part of this year [1812] Mr. Wat- 
son was called to mourn the loss of his aged 
father, who had for some time been labouring 
under a dropsical complaint, the fatal termina- 
tion of which was daily expected. Mr. Wat- 
son, being by the feebleness of his own health 
at this time prevented from visiting his afflict- 
ed parent, addressed to him the following letter, 
in which are strikingly displayed the strength 
of his filial affection, and his deep solicitude 
for the spiritual interests of one so nearly re- 
lated to him : — 

" Wakefield, Nov. I2th, 1812. 

" My Dearest Father, — After having had 
many anxious thoughts concerning you, I was 
just sitting down to write to you when I re- 
ceived my sister's letter. I notice in it your 
desire to see me ; and be assured that I am 
anxious also to see you ; and if I can do so I 
will. Our confinement in the circuit is, how- 
ever, great ; and I am very unfit for a journey, 
owing to my remaining very poorly ; being sub- 
ject to sudden bilious attacks, so that some- 
times I know not but I may even escape before 
you into the world of spirits. 

" For myself, afflictions have been good, very 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



99 



good for me ; and 1 bless God for them. He 
corrects like a father ; and severe diseases re- 
quire severe remedies. Happy for us, if the 
divine Physician does not administer in vain ! 
I have not forgotten you at a throne of grace. 
Every time I bow my knees I entreat God to 
bestow his supporting, saving, and comforting 
grace upon my dear parent ; and I trust that I 
have not joined my feeble prayers to yours in 
vain. Again, I would say that God has a good 
purpose to accomplish in your affliction, and 
therefore entreat him to perform his work of 
salvation fully. You are in the furnace ; and it 
afflicts me to hear that the dispensation is so 
severe, and the fire so hot ; yet, if the stubborn 
dross of our sins cannot be otherwise separated 
from our souls, all is mercy still. • I will sit as 
a refiner's fire,' saith the Lord : and it is com- 
fortable to reflect that he does sit by and watch 
the operation. Yet, with submission to his 
will, it cannot be wrong to pray that he would 
mitiorate vour sufi'erincrs. make for vou a 
smoother road to the house appointed for all 
living, or so increase your iuAvard strength and 
comforts, that the soul may become less sensi- 
ble to the pains of the body, and that you, like 
dying martyrs, may shout and triumph in the 
flame itself. 



100 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

" I trust that you are satisfied as to your ac- 
ceptance with God ; nay, that you can rejoice 
in the full assurance of his love revealed to 
you by his Holy Spirit. Be determined to ob- 
tain this ; for there is no other ground of safety 
and happiness than an application of the blood 
of atonement to our consciences, taking away 
the guilt of sin, and the condemning power of 
the law. It is to be received by an act of faith. 
Be persuaded that Christ is able to bless you 
with his full and glorious comfort now, and ven- 
ture your whole upon him ; wait every moment 
for the evidence that the work is done, till faith, 
and joy, and praise spring up in your heart. 
This would be necessary, were you in health ; 
but now the time is short, and more than com- 
monly uncertain. O wrestle like Jacob, till 
you obtain the blessing. 

" In like manner proceed to obtain the full 
sanctification of your nature. It is not death, 
but grace that must destroy our sins, and make 
us meet for heaven. Have faith in the promise 
of the Father to send the Holy Spirit in all the 
power he exerted on the day of pentecost, to 
burn up the very root of corruption, and fill you 
in a moment with all the love and power of 
God, making you one with Christ, and an en- 
tirely new creature. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 101 

" By the same acts of praying faith expect 
perfect patience, peace, and love to be wrought 
in your mind, that you may come up to the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, 
and spring up a mature Christian, saying, ' Not 
my will, but thine be done.' 

' The language of Mr. Charles Wesley on 
his death-bed may be suitable to your case : — 

' In age and feebleness extreme, 
Who shall a helpless worm redeem 1 
Jesus, my all in all thou art, 
Strength of my failing flesh and heart ; 
O might I catch a smile from thee, 
And drop into eternity !' 

" You are indeed in affliction, as a * leaf be- 
fore the wind but there is a merciful and 
compassionate High Priest, who knows how 
to succour you, being tempted and tried like 
unto you. O cast yourself at his feet. Tell 
him you have heard of his compassions, and 
wait to prove them. Tell him that you are 
nothing, can do nothing, and wait to prove him 
to be your all in all. Have large and high 
thoughts of the boundless mercy of God ; for 
though we have sinned grievously, and awfully 
neglected his salvation, he is the Saviour still. 
He hateth putting away, and delighteth in 
mercy. He still spreads to receive us arms of 



102 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

mercy ; and his voice is, ' Come unto me ; for 
I came to seek and save that which was lost.' 

0 may you and I, and all of us, 

' To his arms of mercy fly, 

Find our lasting quiet there.' 

1 sympathize with my mother. The Lord sup- 
port and bless her with his favour and strength! 

" I am your affectionate son, 

" R. Watson." 

The venerable sufferer to whom this pious 
letter was addressed died about a fortnight 
after, in the seventieth year of his age. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 103 



CHAPTER Y. 

Mr. Watson reappointed to Wakefield — Methodist missions — 
Pr. Coke's labours in the missionary cause — Anecdote — Dr. Coke 
embarks on a mission to the East Indies — His death — Number of 
the Wesleyan missionaries at this time — Meetings held and socie- 
ties formed in various places for their support — Extracts from Mr. 
Watson's missionary sermon at Leeds — Anecdotes of the mission 
in the West Indies— Extract from Mr. Watson's speech at the 
Hahfax meeting — Anecdote related by him at the missionary 
meeting in Sheffield — Extracts from speeches from Mr. Mont- 
gomery — Increase of interest awakened on the subject of mis- 
sions — Notice of Mr. Watson's exertion in their behalf. 

At the conference of 1813 Mr. Watson was 
reappointed to the Wakefield circuit. It was 
during the second year of his ministry in this 
place that he was providentially led to engage 
in a work to which a large portion of his sub- 
sequent life was devoted ; we allude to the 
glorious enterprise of sending the gospel to the 
heathen. 

Previous to this time the Methodist missions 
were chiefly confined to the West Indies, and 
the British dominions in North America, where 
they had been in successful operation for many 
years. These missions had been principally 
established through the instrumentality of the 
Rev. Dr. Coke ; and after the death of Mr. Wes- 
ley they were committed entirely to his super- 
intendence and direction. To their extension 



104 LIFE OF RICHARD \VATSON. 



and support, his time and talents, his fortune 
and his life, were alike devoted. He kept up a 
regular correspondence with the missionaries, 
giving counsel and encouragement as their 
cases might require. He travelled through the 
country making collections in the congrega- 
tions for their support ; solicited subscriptions 
from wealthy individuals wherever he could 
gain access ; and stooped to the very drudgery 
of charity by gratuitously pleading the cause of 
a perishing world from door to door.* For 

*The doctor's gentlemanly manners, polite address, 
and untiring perseverance, together with the earnest sim- 
plicity with which he related the subject of his errand, 
rendered him remarkably successful in collecting money in 
this way ; and though he sometimes received a rude and 
ungracious refusal, yet at other times his applications 
vv^ere successful where his friends anticipated nothing but 
repulsive insult. A singular instance of this occurred at 
a place called Stonehouse, near Plymouth. " Calling one 
day on a captain of a man-of-war, who resided there, he 
introduced the case of the West India negroes in such an 
affecting manner, as to prevail upon him to give him a 
sum much larger than he expected. This he gratefully 
received and retired. The captain, who knew nothing of 
Dr. Coke, happened, in the course of the day, to call on a 
gentleman who had long resided in the place, and to whom 
Dr. Coke had frequently made successful applications. 
After conversing together for some time — ' Pray sir,' said 
the captain, ' do you know any thing of a little fellow who 



LIFE OF RICHARD AVATSOX. 



105 



nearly thirtv years did this indefatigable ser- 
vant of God give himself up to this benevo- 
lent enterprise. For its advancement he ex- 
pended thousands of pounds from his own pri- 
vate property ; and by his rare and almost 
unparalleled labours, and those connected with 
him in the work, many thousands of souls were 
brought to the knowledge of God. 

At the conference of 1813 Dr. Coke, who 
had long entertained an ardent desire to esta- 
blish a mission in the East Indies, expressed 
his anxious wish to be allowed to proceed 
thither for that purpose ; and at the same time 
introduced to the conference seven young men 
whom he had engaged to accompany him, and 
share in his toils. It was in vain that his bre- 
thren, in view of his advanced age, (he was 
then sixty-seven,) the difficulties of the under- 
taking, and the serious inconveniences which 
the existing missions v%-ould experience in con- 
sequence of his absence, attempted to dissuade 
him from the enterprise. He heard their rea- 

calls himself Dr. Coke, and who is going about begging 
money for missionaries to be sent among the slaves V ' 1 
know him well,' was the reply. • He seems," rejoined the 
captain, 'to be a heavenly minded little d — 1. He coaxed 
me out of two guineas this morning.' " — Drew's Life of 
Coke. 



106 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



sonings and remonstrances, and then, bursting 
into tears, he exclaimed, in a manner which 
they could not resist, If you will not let me 
go, you will break my heart." To obviate any 
objections on account of the expense which the 
mission would involve, he generously offered to 
bear, from his own private purse, the whole 
cost of the outfit, to the amount of six thousand 
pounds sterling, if that sum should be thought 
necessary. 

His brethren at length withdrew their oppo- 
sition, and in December, 1813, the doctor, ac- 
companied by James Lynch, William Ault, 
George Erskine, William M. Harvard, Thomas 
Squance, Benjamin Clough, and John M'Ken- 
ney, embarked for his new field of labour ; but 
before the vessel reached its destination, he 
was suddenly called to his eternal reward.* 

* The mission to the East was not abandoned when the 
spirit of Dr. Coke fled to paradise, and his remains were 
committed to the great deep. His companions, though 
young and inexperienced, proceeded on their voyage to 
Ceylon, where they commenced a mission, which has al- 
ready exerted a powerful influence upon that island. It 
has also long since been extended to the continent of In- 
dia, and rises every year in interest and importance. — 
Jackson's Centenary. There are at the present time 
twenty-two Wesleyan missionaries in Ceylon, and twen- 
ty in continental India. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



107 



The ^lethodists had at this period sixty mis- 
sionaries employed on foreign stations and 
among the Roman Catholics in Ireland, besides 
those who were now appointed to the East ; 
and it now became necessary to devise some 
measures for their future support. Hitherto 
the connection had relied almost entirely upon 
the personal efforts of Dr. Coke, both in direct- 
ing the operations of the missions, and in pro- 
viding the means whereby they might be sus- 
tained ; and now that he was about to leave the 
country, many persons entertained great anx- 
iety respecting their future prosperity. Strange 
as it may appear, however, the cause was 
gTeatly advanced in consequence of the doctor's 
departure ; for when they could no longer de- 
pend upon his exertions, the preachers and peo- 
ple awoke from their state of inaction ; they 
perceived that a responsibility rested upon them 
which they had not previously felt ; and that 
it was needful for them to make a strenuous 
and united effort to maintain the missions which 
were already formed, and commence others 
which were greatly needed, and in many places 
loudly called for. 

By some other denominations, the plan of 
organized societies, which should employ col- 
lectors in raising weekly, monthly, quarterly, 



108 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

and annual subscriptions, had been successfully 
tried ; and it was believed by several preach- 
ers and other friends in the western parts of 
Yorkshire, that this method of raising funds for 
the missions might be adopted with good effects 
by the Methodists at the present crisis. It was 
therefore resolved that a meeting should be 
held at Leeds, for the purpose of forming a 
" Methodist Missionary Society for the Leeds 
District and Messrs. Buckley and Watson 
were requested to preach preparatory sermons. 
With this request Mr. Watson complied, though 
not without some reluctance ; for the plan was 
new among the Methodists, and as he had been 
so recently received into the connection, he 
feared that if he took so prominent a part in the 
proceedings, he might be suspected by some 
of a desire to introduce novelties into the so- 
ciety. His objections, however, were over- 
ruled, and on the morning of Wednesday, Oc- 
tober the 6th, he delivered an eloquent and 
impressive discourse from a part of Ezekiel's 
vision of the dry bones : — " Come from the four 
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, 
that they may live,^^ Ezek. xxxvii, 9. 

In the course of his remarks he clearly re- 
futed the unscriptural notion that the heathen, 
in consequence of their ignorance of divine re- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 109 

velatioTi, were in a state of spiritual safety. 
While he admitted that it was possible for hea- 
thens to be saved, he contended that this very 
possibility proved the actual danger of their 
state, as it showed them to be the subjects of 
moral government, and consequently liable to 
punishment in case of disobedience. This 
solemn question, he observed, had been decided 
by revelation itself. The reasoning of St. Paul 
in Romans i, ii, is as applicable to the heathen 
of our day, as it was to those of the apostle's 
day. *' His conclusion is, that for all their 
crimes and idolatries ' they are without excuse.' 
They are ignorant, but it is because they ' do 
not like to retain God in their knowledge.' 
They have a ' law written on their hearts ;' but 
they violate it. They have a 'conscience' 
which ' accuses or excuses' them ; but they 
disregard it, and ' therefore they are without 
excuse.' This is the conclusion of an infalli- 
ble teacher, against whom it is vain to reason. 
The heathen world then are under the wrath 
and curse of Almighty God. The law which 
they have violated turns the edge of the sword 
of justice against them ; the conscience which 
they have abused renders them miserable in 
their crimes ; and as death expels their myriads 
from this state of being, they appear before that 



110 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

God of judgment who hath said, ' The abomi- 
nable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and 
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall 
have their part in the lake that burneth with 
fire and brimstone, which is the second 
death.' 

" Were these solemn truths well fixed in 
our minds, they would stand in the place of a 
volume of argument to induce us to support 
missionary institutions. They would burst at 
once the bands of selfishness, and ' draw out 
our souls' to them who are perishing for lack 
of knowledge. The contemplation of the im- 
minent danger of so great a portion of our fel- 
low men would melt at once the frigidness of 
our natures, and cause our affections to flow 
forth in strong prayers, and still stronger exer- 
tions, in behalf of our brethren in distant lands, 
who have ' forgotten the God of their salvation, 
and have not been mindful of the rock of their 
strength.' " 

Having pointed out the means by which the 
heathen world is to be restored to the image 
and favour of God, the preacher directed the 
attention of his hearers to the good effects 
which had already followed the use of the ap- 
pointed means, and to the glorious promises of 
the ultimate and universal spread of the gospel. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



Ill 



He then concluded his discourse with the fol- 
lowing eloquent appeal : — 

" If, then, so glorious a certainty of present 
partial success, and of ultimate complete suc- 
cess, be established, w^hat remains but that we 
apply to the great work of sending the blessed 
gospel to the heathen with the utmost zeal ? 
Duty demands it. We owe a debt of love to 
every man. God hath ' blessed us that we may 
be a blessing.' Sympathy demands it. ' Now 
we are converted, let us strengthen our bre- 
thren.' Interest demands it, ' He that water- 
eth shall be watered himself.' Our hatred of 
sin demands it. Let us haste to banish from 
the earth those abominations w^iich offend the 
pure eyes of heaven. Pity to souls demands it. 
Shall myriads of immortal spirits sink into the 
gulf of perdition without an effort on our part to 
save them ? Lastly ; gratitude to God for past 
success demands it. God has blessed our mis- 
sions with great and distinguished success. 
The prophets have prophesied, and the bones 
have been shaken ; the breath of God has en- 
tered them, and already they stand up by their 
thousands. God be praised ! If you faint not, 
if, in common with your brethren throughout 
the Christian world, you still prosecute the good 
work, they shall be increased to ' an exceeding 



112 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON 

great army,' If, in the earnest fervour of your 
spirits, you pray, * Come from the four winds, 
O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that 
they may live,' the whole valley shall soon 
heave with returning life. The holy influence 
shall sweep the desolate earth, and in every 
land the ' dry bones' shall stand up, ' the living, 
the living to praise God, as we do this day.' 
Amen." 

On the afternoon of the day on which this 
discourse was delivered, the first Methodist 
missionary meeting was held in one of the Me- 
thodist chapels at Leeds. It was numerously 
attended, and was addressed by the Rev. Messrs. 
.Tabez Bunting, James Wood, William Warrener, 
Thomas Jackson, Mr. William Dawson, and 
several other ministers and laymen. Mr. War- 
rener, who was one of the first missionaries 
employed among the negroes in the West In- 
dies, gave an interesting account of the mission 
in those islands, and related some pleasing 
anecdotes, exhibiting the beneficial effects 
which had resulted from them. One or two of 
these we will here insert. 

" A negress, named Judy Athol, went to hear 
the preaching, because, as she expressed her- 
self, ' odder negers go.' The word reached 
her heart. She instantly parted with all her 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOxV. 113 

jewels, fine muslins, and lace, and never de- 
sired them again. She entertained the preach- 
ers many years at her house, and truly adorned 
her Christian profession. Such was the con- 
fidence reposed in her, on account of her € k- 
emplary character, that the lady on whose estate 
she lived, requested her to become her house- 
keeper. But Judy declined the offer, alleging 
as a reason that she could not then entertain the 
preachers, nor attend so constantly the means 
of grace. After I had been some time on the 
island, Judy was taken ill. When her last 
moments were at hand, she sent a request that 
I would visit her in her affliction. Being intro- 
duced to the dying saint, I said, ' Now, Judy, 
you have often told us how good Jesus has 
been to you. You were then in health, but 
now you are dying, how is it with you now V 
Pausing a few minutes, she replied, ^ O, massa ^ 
my Massa Jesus always been good since I 
knew him ; but now I dying, it all glory, glo- 
ry.' In such triumph died Judy iVthol." 

" On the estate of a Mr. G. some pious ne- 
groes resided, who repaired to the means of 
grace whenever they could go without detec- 
tion. Mr. G. being about to sail for England, 
his m.anager v/as heard to say before his depart- 
ure, ' Mr. G. is going to England ; I will then 
8 



114 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



soon put an end to all this praying among the 
negroes.' One day, soon afterward, Mr. G. 
was walking between two cane pieces, when 
he saw some ripe peas wasting ; on which he 
said to his watchman, who was near, ' Why do 
you not gather these peas V * 0 massa,' said 
he, ' they no my peas.' ' Not your peas,' said 
Mr. G., 'you rogue, do not you all take peas, or 
any thing else which you can get V ' O, massa,' 
rejoined the watchman, ' we negers, who go to 
prayer, never teeve.' Mr. G. said, ' What do 
you say 1 that you negroes, who go to prayer, 
are not thieves V His reply was, * O no, massa.' 
Mr. G., as he walked to his house, said within 
himself, ' What have we been doing not to en- 
courage the negroes to attend preaching V He 

then called his boy, and said, ' Go tell Mr. , 

the manager, to address a note in my name to 
missionary, and to inform him that he is 
welcome to preach on my estate at any time.' 
Thus was a wicked design frustrated ; and, 
the good hand of God being with us, we erect- 
ed a chapel oi> this very estate, worth £400 ' 
currency." 

At this meeting resolutions were passed, re- 
questing Mr. Watson to publish the sermon* 

* It will be found in the first volume of Mr. Watson's 
sermons, published at the Methodist Book Concern. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 115 

he had preached in the morning ; and also to 
prepare an address to the friends of the Me- 
thodist missions, and to the Christian pubhc in 
general, giving information respecting the mis 
sions, and setting forth their claims to the sup- 
port of all who wished well to religion and 
mankind. With both of these requests Mr 
Watson complied. 

The interest aw^akened in behalf of the mis- 
sionary cause by the sermons and addresses 
on this occasion was very great ; and similar 
meetings w^ere soon after held at Halifax, 
Wakefield, Hull, and Sheffield, at all of which 
Mr. Watson attended, and took an active part 
in the services. In his speech at the Halifax 
meeting, referring to a common excuse for not 
contributing to the support of foreign missions, 
he said : — 

" In opposition to such efforts as have been 
this day recommended, I can anticipate but one 
objection from any person bearing the name of 
a Christian. It is, that charity begins at home. 
I will not dispute the sentiment : it is entitled 
to some respect. It has passed into a proverb ; 
and bears the aspect of hoary venerableness. 
It is a neat pocket edition of selfishness, and 
very convenient to the wearer. I should be 
very sorry to deprive him of it ; and shall there- 



116 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON 

fore only observe, that our purposes and plans 
are not inconsistent with this principle ; and 
that, in a word, charity to the heathen is cha- 
rity begun at home. This is not difficult to 
prove. We cannot take a step toward evan- 
gelizing the heathen without entering into many 
inquiries as to the extent of their moral wretch- 
edness ; and such inquiries are eminently use- 
ful to ourselves. In our present state Ave are 
seldom brought to value our own blessings, but 
by their loss, or by comparing our condition 
with that of others. By the loss of our religious 
privileges, I hope we shall never learn their 
value. But if, by comparing our light with the 
darkness of the heathen, our riches with their 
poverty, we learn to prize these blessings more, 
and to use them better ; then, sir, missionary 
efforts will prove a blessing to us, to our socie- 
ties, to our country ; and charity to the heathen 
will be charity begun at home." 

At the meeting in Sheffield he related the 
following anecdote of an aged and pious female, 
who, having heard of the new thing in Method- 
ism which was then so much talked of in the 
western part of Yorkshire, was anxious to have 
a hand in it herself, and to contribute out of 
her poverty something toward sending the gos- 
pel to the heathen : — A woman at Wakefield. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 117 

well known to be in very needy circumstances, 
came and offered to subscribe a penny a week 
to the missionary fund there. It was imme- 
diately said to her, ' Surely you are too poor to 
afford it.' She replied, ' I spin so many hanks 
of yarn a w^eek for a living ; I will spin one 
more, and that will be a penny for the society.' " 
" I would rather," said Mr. Watson, " see that 
hank suspended in the poor w^oman's cottage, 
a token of her zeal for the triumph of the gos- 
pel, than military trophies in the halls of he- 
roes. In them I should only see the proud 
memorials of victories obtained over the physi- 
cal strength of man ; but in the other I behold 
the triumph of a generous religion over the 
natural selfishness of the human heart." 

The poet ^Montgomery was one of the speak- 
ers at the Sheffield meeting,* and heard Air. 

* "VVe cannot forbear inserting the following beautiful 
passage from ]\Ir. Montgomer}- 's speech on this occasion : 
— In the Bible Society all names and distinctions of sects 
are blended till they are lost, like the prismatic colours in 
a ray of pure and perfect light ; — in the missionary work, 
•though divided, they are not discordant ; but like the same 
colours, displayed and harmonized in the rainbow, they 
form an arch of glory ascending on the one hand from earth 
to heaven, and on the other descending from heaven to 
earth, — a bow of promise, a covenant of peace, a sign that 
the storm of wrath is passing away, and the Sun of right- 



118 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

Watson relate this anecdote. Referring to it 
at a missionary meeting held in the same place 
twenty years after, he said, — " I have Mr. Wat- 
son in my eye at this moment. The picture is 
perfect in my remembrance, as he stood on the 
bench before me : while realizing the scene, 
as though we had all been with him in the 
widow's cottage, he pointed to the single hank, 
suspended from a rafter of the ceiling. I can 
never forget his attitude nor his look. ' She 
hath done what she could,' was the feeling of 
every one of his audience ; and while the elo- 
quent advocate expatiated on the value of such 
an offering, made in singleness of heart to the 
Lord, neither he nor his hearers, nor the hum- 
ble contributor herself, were at that time aware 
of its value in influence as an example of what 
others in imitation would be stirred up to do in 
the same way ; for I believe this was the first 
precedent of innumerable instances in Avhich 
the poorest, the weakest, and the meanest in 
outward respects, have taxed their ingenuity 
as well as their industry to find out means 
whereby they could aid the same blessed cause.* 
Indeed, these devices have been so frequently 

eousness, with healing in his wings, breaking forth on all 
nations." Mr. Montgomery is a member of the Moravian 
Church, and a man of a truly Christian and catholic spirit. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 119 

and so successfully practised, — each in turn 
operating as an incentive and an encourage- 
ment to others, — that, even in a pecuniary 
sense, the poor widow's two mites may have 
produced a talent of gold to the missionary 
funds." 

Missionary meetings were shortly after held, 
and societies formed in many other places, at 
several of which Mr. Watson, in conjunction 
with his friend Mr. Bunting, rendered very effi- 
cient aid. 

At the ensuing conference, v/hich met at 
Bristol in July, 1814, the missionary meetings 
which had been held in the course of the year 
became a subject of discussion. After an ex- 
planation of their character was given, and the 
arguments for and against them were heard, 
the conference adopted, almost unanimously, 
the following resolutions : — 

" We strongly recommend the immediate 
establishment of a Methodist missionary socie- 
ty in every district in the kingdom, (in which 
it has not been already accomplished,) on the 
ge.neral plan of those societies which have been 
formed in Yorkshire and elsewhere during the 
past year. 

" The thanks of the conference are given to 
those of our preachers in the Leeds, Halifax, 



120 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

York, Sheffield, Cornwall, and Newcastle dis- 
tricts, who have been concerned in the forma- 
tion of Methodist missionary societies ; and to 
all the members and friends of the said socie- 
ties, for the very liberal and zealous support 
which they have afforded us in this important 
department of the work of God." 

A new and mighty impulse was thus given 
to the missionary work throughout the connec- 
tion. The sacred flame continued to spread, 
and missionary societies were formed in. all the 
districts in the kingdom ; these were followed 
by branch societies in the several circuits ; by 
associations connected with the different cha- 
pels ; by juvenile societies, and ladies' associa- 
tions. The hearts of the people were every- 
where impressed, and their sympathies and 
prayers called forth by the state of the heathen, 
and the communication of authentic missionary 
intelligence ; collectors offered their services 
in every direction, and money was from year 
to year poured into the sacred treasury, beyond 
all former example ; in consequence of which, 
new missions have been established, old ones 
reinforced, tens of thousands of heathen chil- 
dren instructed in the truths of Christianity, 
and many wretched savages and idolaters civil- 
ized, converted, and saved. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 121 

The career of honourable labour in behalf 
of missions, which Mr. Watson had now com- 
menced, ended only with his life, and to their 
present prosperity his exertions largely contri- 
buted. He pleaded the sacred cause from the 
pulpit, the platform, and the press, with a force 
of argument, a beauty of illustration, a sublimity 
of thought, and a power of persuasion which, 
perhaps, no man, whether speaker or writer, 
ever surpassed. In union with his brethren, 
he directed the practical working of the mis- 
sion system with a sound judgment, and patient, 
persevering zeal. All his abilities were brought 
to bear upon this work ; and for a series of 
years he, more than any other individual, sup- 
plied the place of the lamented Dr. Coke. 



122 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Watson's ministry at Wakefield — His attention to children 
and )^oung- persons — Reproof to an impatient hearer — Appointed 
to the Hull circuit — Dedication of a new chapel — Mr. Watson's 
usefulness — Indications of declining- health — Providential deliver- 
ance — Letter to Mr. Walton — Tale of robbery — Visits London to 
assist at a missionary anniversary — Preaches in the City-Road 
chapel — Removal to London — Appointed one of the secretaries 
to the missions — Amount of his official duties — Letter to Mr 
Gar butt. 

Mr. Watson's ministry did not at first, ex- 
cept among the more intelligent and discerning 
members of the several congregations, attract 
that attention in the Wakefield circuit which 
might have been expected, and which it so 
justly deserved. His hearers generally, how- 
ever, learned to appreciate him on further ac- 
quaintance ; and his preaching became increas- 
ingly acceptable up to the time of his removal. 
But what was far more gratifying to him than 
the admiration of his friends, was the assurance 
that his " labours were not in vain in the Lord. ' 
Many individuals were, through his instrument- 
ality, converted " from the error of their way," 
and brought into the church ; and some of the 
most pious and exemplary members of the Me- 
thodist society in Wakefield at this day ac- 
knowledge him as their father in the Lord. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



123 



To young people of inteligence, belonging to 
religious families, he was rendered specially 
useful. He conversed with, them respecting 
their reading ; and introduced them to different 
branches of study and knowledge,* particularly 
astronomy and botany. He pointed out to them 
the traces of wisdom and design which are ob- 
servable in all the arrangements of the vegeta- 
ble kingdom ; and he taught them to sanctify 
every pursuit and employment by the word of 
God and prayer. To many families he was a 
frequent and welcome visitant. He sympa- 
thized with them in their trials and afflictions ; 
and his cheerful spirit and intelligent conversa- 
tion were to them a perpetual source of hallow- 
ed joy and instruction. 

In all his pastoral visitations, children were 
special objects of his kind attention. He re- 
garded them as the lambs of the flock of Christ, 
and the hope of the church. He sometimes 
wrote pithy sentences in their books, and pre- 
sented to them little curiosities ; and he occa- 
sionally mingled with their amusements, for the 
purpose of obtaining their confidence, and more 
effectually to promote their spiritual and moral 
benefit. This interesting feature in Mr. Wat- 
son's character became increasingly prominent 
as he advanced in life ; and it might truly be 



124 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



said of him, in the language of Mr. Montgo- 
mery,— 

" Children were his delight ; they ran to meet 
His soothing hand, and clasp his honour'd feet ; 
While, 'midst their fearless sports, supremely blest, 
He grew in heart a child among the rest." 

It is scarcely needful to add, that by the 
Methodist society at Wakefield Mr. Watson 
was universally esteemed and beloved ; and 
that when in the course of his itinerancy he 
was called to remove from them, his departure 
occasioned a general and sincere regret. Mr. 
Jackson, who succeeded him in that circuit, 
observes, that the people were continually re- 
ferring in their conversation to Mr. Watson's 
character and ministry ; and the emotion with 
which they often spoke, showed the deep 
impression which his sermons and conduct 
had made upon their minds. With some fami- 
lies Mr. Watson had been specially intimate ; 
and their admiration of his character and at- 
tachment to his person were unbounded, and 
continued without abatement to the end of his 
life. 

The following incident, which occurred in 
his ministry at Wakefield, will show with what 
readiness and effect he could administer re- 
proof when he deemed it necessary. One Sun- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



125 



day morning, soon after the commencement of 
his discourse, a man in a pew just before hin^ 
rose from his seat, and turned round to look at 
the clock in the front of the gallery, as if the ser- 
vice were a weariness to him, and he wished 
to give the preacher a hint to bring it to a 
speedy conclusion. ?,Ir. Watson observed the 
unseemly act, and said, in a very significant 
manner, " A remarkable change has taken place 
among the people of this country in regard to 
the public services of religion. Our forefathers 
put their clocks on the outside of their places 
of worship, that they might not be too late in 
their attendance. ^Ye have transferred them 
to the inside of the house of God, lest we should 
stay too long in his service. A sad and an 
ominous chancre !" Then, addressinsf the man 
whose rude behaviour had occasioned the re- 
mark, he said, " You need be under no alarm 
this morning : I shall not keep you beyond the 
usual time." 
' Mr. Watson's next removal was to the Hull 
circuit, where, as he informs us, he spent two 
of the happiest years of his life." Methodism 
had been established in Hull for more than fifty 
years ; and there was nov/ a numerous and re- 
spectable society, with three moderately-sized 
chapels, and a fourth, of much larger dimen- 



126 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



sions, in course of erection. The new chapel, 
^hich was dedicated soon after Mr. Watson's 
arrival, was a noble edifice, ninety-four feet in 
length, and eighty-four in breadth, including the 
wings, in which were the gallery stairs. It was 
calculated to seat upward of two thousand peo- 
ple, and when the pews and aisles were crowd- 
ed, it would hold more than three thousand. 
The dedication services took place on Friday 
and Sunday, October 7th and 9th, 1814, when 
sermons were preached by the Rev. Messrs. 
Bunting, Watson, Newton, and Burdsall. The 
occasion was one of great interest, and all the 
services were well attended, especially on the 
Sunday evening, when it was thought upward 
of four thousand persons crowded into the new 
chapel. Many hundreds were unable to obtain 
admission ; and these, with the congregations 
in the other chapels, which were open at the 
same time, amounted, it was believed, to up- 
ward of eight thousand persons, who on that 
memorable evening left their homes to attend 
the worship of God among the Methodists at 
Hull. Immediately after the dedication of this 
house of prayer, every setting was let ;* and a 

* Among the British Wesleyan Methodists it is the uni- 
versal practice to rent the pews or slips in their chapels ; 
reserving, however, a sufficient number of free seats for the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



127 



large and respectable congregation regularly 
attended its services, both on the Sunday, and 
on the week-day evenings. To this result the 
ministry of Air. AYatson greatly contributed; 
and many families, previously unacquainted 
with Methodism, became, principally through 
his instrumentality, permanent attendants at the 
new place of worship. 

At no period of his life does Air. Watson's 
ministry appear to have been more powerful, 
or to have made a greater impression upon the 
pubUc mind. His sermons, marked by a force 
of reasoning and a persuasiveness almost pecu- 
liar to himself, embodying the great truths of 
the gospel, and delivered with earnestness and 
feeling, were the means of reclaiming many a 
wanderer from God, of administering comfort 
to many a broken heart ; and of stimulating be- 
lievers to " go on to perfection." One Alonday 
evening, when he was preaching in the new 
chapel, an unusual power attended the word, 
and many persons wept aloud. At the close 
of the public service he retired into the vestry, 
where manv of the concrreo;ation followed him, 
inquiring, '* What must w~e do to be saved 

accommodation of the poor, and for strangers. The nev7 
chapel at Hull contained free seats for eight hundred 
persons. 



128 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

The cries of those who were convinced of sin 
were loud and piercing. For a moment he 
seemed to be stunned, and asked one of the 
class leaders, who was standing by. " What 
shall we do, brother " Let us pray to Him 
who can save," was the answer. Without ut- 
tering another word, he kneeled down by the 
side of the penitents, and continued to inter- 
cede with God in their behalf, pointing them 
at intervals to the sacrifice of Christ, and en- 
couraging them to put their trust in him, till 
three of them were enabled to rejoice in the 
pardoning mercy of God. Several whole fami- 
lies, by means of his preaching, were brought 
under religious impressions, and many indi- 
viduals were induced to become regular hear- 
ers at the various chapels, who were previously 
accustomed to spend the sabbath in seeking 
worldly pleasure. 

His usefulness at Hull was not to be esti- 
mated by the number of actual conversions 
which were known to be effected through his 
instrumentality. The influence of his ministry 
was felt in many quarters, where it was never 
acknowledged ; and it operated in a thousand 
ways which cannot now be traced. Almost 
every person in the town, who made any pro- 
fession of religion, heard him at one time or 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



129 



another. Even his week-night congregations 
in the principal chapels were unusually large ; 
frequently amounting to eight hundred or a 
thousand people. As a preacher he probably 
never surpassed Avhat he was in those days. 
His sermons were closely studied ; and having 
then greater bodily vigour than he possessed 
in the later years of his life, they were deliver- 
ed with an energy which increased the inte- 
rest they were so well calculated to produce. 

The Rev. William Naylor, w^ho was one of 
Mr. Watson's colleagues at this time, observes, 
— " There is reason to believe that the disease 
which terminated his life, existed, if it had not 
its commencement, during his residence in the 
Hull circuit. He complained of a pain in his 
side. This was so severe, that he could not 
bear the exercise of riding on horseback, which 
was our usual mode of conveyance to the dis- 
tant places in the circuit. He was exceedingly 
punctual in attending his appointments ; and 
therefore performed many long journeys on 
foot, even in the middle of winter, and upon 
very indifferent roads ; for he could not endure 
the thought of a Methodist preacher neglecting 
a congregation, when he was expected ; and 
he felt very keenly if any one supposed him 
capable of doing so from indifference." 
9 



130 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



In one of these pedestrian excursions, Mr. 
Watson narrowly escaped with his life. For 
several years the preachers in the Hull circuit 
had been in the habit of visiting, on the week- 
day evenings, a small village called Marfleet, 
v/here they had a society and congregation. 
The road to this place being rather circuitous, 
foot passengers were accustomed to shorten 
the distance by walking across the fields^ which 
are surrounded by deep drains, over which 
some narrow planks formed the only bridges. 
When returning from this place one stormy win- 
ter's night, Mr. Watson missed the path, and 
wandered about for some hours, exposed to the 
storm, and in no small danger of perishing in 
the drains, which were then filled with water. 
As the night advanced, his family and friends 
became alarmed ; and Mr. John Thompson, at 
whose house he was expected to sup on his 
way home, set out with a lantern in quest 
of him. Wr. Watson, in a state of great ex- 
haustion, saw the light approach ; and believ- 
ing it to be the sign of his deliverance, sent in 
answer to his prayer, stood still till he was 
able to hail its friendly bearer, who was over- 
joyed to find that he was the honoured means 
of saving so valuable a life. Mr. W"atson, who 
was completely bewildered when Mr. Thomp- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



13] 



son appeared, always regarded this deliverance 
as the result of a providential interposition. 

The folio winsf letter was addressed, in De- 
cember, 1814, to a valued friend at Wakefield, 
whom, it appears, Mr. Watson had received an 
invitation to visit on his way to a meeting 
which was to have been held at Z\Ianchester, 
but which was postponed. It contains some 
painful notices of the delicacy of his health, 
and the consequent pain and languor under 
which he performed those labours which ex- 
cited so much attention, and by which multi- 
tudes of people were so greatly benefited. 

To Mr, William Walton. 

" AIy Dear Friexd, — I have received a kind 
intimation of your wish that I would not omit 
paying you a visit, as proposed before the Alan- 
chester meeting was postponed. Xow certainly 
I do not require much pressing to visit Wake- 
field, which, you know, is a very favourite 
place ; and especially your house, which is still 
more so. I am obliged to visit Manchester on 
some private business ; and had intended to go 
directly through by the mail from Hull ; but, as 
I hear you are indisposed, and it is a charity to 
visit the sick ; and. secondly, as you have re- 
peated the invitation ; and. thirdly, as I am 



132 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



myself unwell, and shall be glad of a day or 
two of relaxation, for I am tridy worked down ; 
I will do myself what I assure you will be a 
very great pleasure, — I will, all being well, and 
if it please God, be with you on Monday, the 
2d of January ; I propose going on Monday 
morning, by the Sheffield coach, as far as Raw- 
cliffe, whence I can get a conveyance to Pon- 
tefract. Now, as I am not in good walking 
condition, if I could so far trespass on your 
goodness as to send the gig for me there, about 
twelve o'clock, I should be with you early in 
the afternoon. The gig might meet me at the 
same inn, in Pontefract, where we once took a 
lunch, in one of our botanical excursions ; for 
you have not, I suppose, forgotten rambling 
among the hedges and ditches for good speci- 
mens. If this should not be convenient, it is 
no matter. I can either walk from Pontefract, 
or get some conveyance. Do not put yourself 
to any inconvenience whatever. 

" I am truly sorry to hear that you have had 
another of your winter attacks. I too have 
been an invalid for more than a month ; though 
I have continued in my work. May we con- 
sider these as the kind corrections of the Fa- 
ther who loves us, and is still, both in the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



133 



cloud and the simsliine, carrying on his pur- 
poses of mercy ! 

" I find you have a tale of my being robbed, 
and getting £^150 by it. Truly I should have 
no objection to be robbed in such a way ; but 
there are no such golden showers for me, who 
seldom profited much by the doctrine of chances. 
The fact is, we have had the same tale current 
here respecting yh. Atmore, at Halifax, with 
this difierence, — that in the change of coats, he 
got £600 ; and I, always behind you see, only 
£150. I have seldom any thing to be robbed 
of, but my life ; and no man can take away 
that till He pleases who gave it. This neigh- 
bourhood is, however, greatly infested by des- 
peradoes. 

This will reach you about the new' year. 
May it be a year of the greatest happiness, 
peace, usefulness, and improvement to you 
all ! "Wishing you every blessing of time and 
eternity, I must leave off and fall to work. I 
have three occasional sermons to preach before 
I see you ; one on Saturday, one on Sunday 
afternoon, and one on vSunday evening ; be- 
sides my regular work in the town and neigh- 
bourhood. The friends here are most unmer- 
ciful folks ; but I will shake them off at four 



134 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



o'clock on Monday morning, when the coach 
leaves. 

" Thursday noonr « 

The tale of robbery, upon which Mr. W atson 
here descants in his humorous manner, and 
which was then extensively current, was, that 
in returning to Hull late in the evening, after 
preaching in a neighbouring village, he was 
met by a highwayman, who, after taking from 
him his money and his watch, demanded his 
coat, giving him his own, which Avas old and 
shabby, in exchange ; and that Mr. Watson, 
on his arrival at home, found in the pocket 
of this worthless garment the sum of jC150, 
This, however, proved, like many other mar- 
vellous reports, to be only an ingenious fabri- 
cation. 

The fame of Mr. Watson's extraordinary 
abilities as a preacher, and especially as a 
preacher on public occasions, was nov/ circu- 
lated far and wide. It was no uncommon thing 
for persons to visit Hull from distant places in 
Lincolnshire, in order to have the gratification 
of hearing him ; and he received numberless 
applications from various parts of the country 
to preach at the opening of new chapels, to 
plead the cause of sabbath schools, and to as- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



135 



sist at the formation and anniversaries of mis- 
sionary societies. 

In the spring of 1816 he was requested by 
the brethren in London to deliver a discourse 
at the anniversary of their district missionarv 
society; and in compliance with their request 
he preached at the City-Road chapel on the 
morning of the 25th of April. His sermons and 
speeches on similar occasions had awakened 
so much attention, that not only was a large 
congregation assembled at the appointed time, 
full of eager expectation, but nearly the whole 
of the front gallery was occupied by ministers 
of various denominations. 'Mv. "Watson felt the 
importance and responsibility of his situation, 
and experienced no ordinary degree of trepida- 
tion in contemplating the task which was allot- 
ted him. He paced the vestry of the chapel 
in a state of considerable agitation ; and when 
he was informed that the time for commencing 
the service had arrived, he said, vnth an ex- 
pression of strong emotion, '* Seasons of this 
kind require strong nerves, and great assistance 
from above/' That assistance he received in 
an eminent degree. God was with him. His 
whole appearance bespoke the solemnity, the 
humility, the confidence of one who was charged 
with a message from God ; and the overpower- 



136 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

ing feeling which pervaded the congregation 
was not less hallowing than it was delightful. 
The subject of the sermon was the mediatorial 
government of Christ viewed in connection 
with the universal diffusion and final spread of 
Christianity, and was founded on 1 Cor. xv, 
25 : — " He must reign till he hath put all ene- 
mies under his feetP The sermon itself was a 
master-piece of eloquence in that peculiar style 
for which he was so remarkable ; and was al- 
together one of his happiest and most success- 
ful efforts. It is scarcely possible to conceive 
of argumentation more lucid and powerful, sen- 
timents more sublime and impressive, imagery 
more varied and beautiful, and diction more 
rich and appropriate, than those by which it 
was characterized. As he entered into the sub- 
ject his heart became deeply impressed with 
its truth and importance ; his countenance ex- 
panded ; and the effect upon the congregation 
was irresistible. Much had been expected 
from him ; — 

" Yet when at length the clear and mellow base 
Of his deep voice brake forth, and he let fall 
His chosen words like flakes of feather'd snow ;" 

and when every successive topic which he in- 
troduced rose in interest and grandeur, a breath 
less silence pervaded the whole assembly ; the 



LIFE OF RICHARD AVATSOX. 



137 



people appeared to be all but their attention 
dead ; the powers of the preacher \vere forgot- 
ten in the magnitude and sublimity of the 
theme ; and when the protracted service con- 
cluded, the congregation seemed as though 
listening still, and wrapt up into those vast and 
magnificent conceptions which the preacher 
had presented to their delighted attention. 

In the evening of the day on which this ser- 
mon was preached, the public missionary meet- 
ing was held, at which Dr. Adam Clarke pre- 
sided, ^h. Watson delivered an admirable 
speech, in which he took a brief survey of the 
Wesleyan ^Methodist missions in various parts 
of the world, and bespoke the liberality of the 
people in their behalf. The smallest contri- 
butions," he observed, assist in the good work. 
A shiliinof may carry a missionary a mile ; and 
by travelling that mile he may be a means of 
the conversion and salvation of an immortal 
soul." 

The interest which ?\Ir, Yv'atson felt in the 
subject of missions was such that he never 
hesitated, so far as his health and the claims 
of his circuit would allow, to comply with the 
numerous and pressing invitations which he 
received to visit different parts of the country 
and advocate the good cause. Wherever he 



138 LIFE OF RICHARD A^ATSOX. 



went his sermons and speeches left a most 
salutary impression upon the multitudes who 
were drawn together by the attraction of his 
name. He taught them the yalue of Christiani- 
ty, as the medicine of life, and the sovereign 
remedy of human misery ; and at the same time 
lie so forcibly stated the obligations of the church 
to send the gospel to those who were perish- 
ing for lack of knowledge," as to awaken in 
many persons an increased attention to their 
own spiritual interests; while the mission 
funds were augmented in every place where 
he pleaded the cause of the heathen. 

In the midst of all this popularity, his tem- 
per was highly devout and spiritual ; he was 
often deeply humbled before God ; and his mind 
was not unfrequently exercised by painful 
temptations. Sometimes it was with him a 
matter of extreme difficulty to find suitable sub- 
jects upon which to preach in the course of his 
ordinary ministry ; and he was often consider- 
ably ao;itated, even before the con ore orations 
vv'hich he was accustomed to address. Once, 
in the Waltham-street chapel in Hull, his feel- 
ings were so excited, that he could not recollect 
the place where his text was to be found : and 
he was compelled to repeat the words without 
being able to specify the chapter and the verse 



LIFE OF RICHARD V.'ATSOX. 



139 



At another time, before the same congregation, 
he pronounced the benediction when he should 
have repeated the Lord's prayer. 

At the conference of 1816 ~Sh. AVatson was 
stationed in the London east circuit ; and at 
the same time he was also appointed one of the 
secretaries to the ]^Iethodist missions, an office 
for which he was eminently qualified, and which 
he retained to the end of his life. 

The duties of his secretaryship^ added to 
those of his circuit, which was a large and ex- 
tensive one, fully occupied the whole of his 
time. Writing, soon after his settlement in 
London, to one of his friends at Hull, after inti- 
mating that he had as yet formed but few friend- 
ships in the metropolis, he observes, — " I have 
indeed no time for friendships here. From 
morning till night I am in duty ; and at night 
am sometimes so weary, that they would be 
most interesting friends indeed (some such as 
I have known) who would keep me awake. I 
have had, upon the whole, pleasure in my 
public labours ; and much of the peace of God 
which passeth all understanding, along with 
active engacrements.'" 

An extract from another letter, written about 
the same time, will furnish some idea of the 
amount of labour he had to perform : — 



140 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



" To Mr. Robert Garbutt, Merchant, Hull 

" St. George's East, Nov. 4:th, 1S16. 
" 'My Dear Friexd. — Should I apologize 
for not writing sooner, I miglit fill my paper 
with various reasons, some personal, some pub- 
lic, some philosophical, and others not at all 
so ; let me then, sum up the whole of them in 
one negative : it has not been for want of affec- 
tion. The remembrance of my Hull friends 
will ever be dear to n:ie ; and I never think of 
you without associations of mingled regret and 
pleasure. 

"As self is always so near at hand, and is a 
subject never difficult to speak of, I may begin 
by saying that, as to myself, I have not been 
upon the whole so well in health as I was at 
Hull ; though I hope I have had my seasoning, 
and I begin to go through my work with more 
vigour. The mere circuit labour is not, I think, 
more than at Hull ; but our extra work is greater, 
and the walking is formidable. I have, for in- 
stance, to go regularly every day to the mis- 
sion office, in the City-Road, about two miles 
from my house, and return to dinner. Then I 
have my evening walk to preach, sometimes 
two or three miles more. To this are to be 
added all the supernumerary walks v/hich busi- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



141 



ness or curiosity may call for. How mucli 
time I have for study and reading you may 
then guess ; and indeed I have been obliged to 
turn the streets of London into a study ; and 
sometimes fall into a reverie, at the hazard of 
being upset by a porter, or dashed on the pave- 
ment by some fiery charioteer. 

You will see advertised on the November 
Magazine, that the pocket book would contain 
my portrait ; but I neglected to sit in time, and 
so it could not be engraved. This arises from 
my indifference to such lionours. 

In the midst of general distress I fear Hull 
still supplies its share. 

" May all these sufferings teach us that re- 
medies for national distress are only to be found 
in national amendment ; and that righteousness 
alone exalteth a nation ! 3ylay we, my dear 
friend, be more intent on the prize of our high 
calhng I There are blessincrs which never 
cheat us ; there is a good we can command ; 
there is a peace ever flowing, and never ex 
hausted. We are indeed living for eternity, 
ard that is at hand 1 Let us trim our lamps 
anew, and pour their lustre on ail around us." 



142 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



CHAPTER YII. 

Mr. Watson's duties as missionary secretary — Extracts from 
his first Annual Report of the missions — Mr. Marsden's account 
of Mr. Watson at this time — Attacks upon the Wesleyan mis- 
sions to the slaves in the West Indies — Mr. Watson pub7jshes 
a pamphlet in their defence — Influence of missions on slaver)^ — 
Dedication of Queen-street chapel — Missionary Report for 1817 — 
Mr. Watson publishes a Defence of the Doctrine of the Eternal 
Sonship — Prepares a plan for a General Wesleyan Missionary 
Society — Appointed to the London west circuit — Preaches before 
the Sunday School Union— Writes the first Annual Pastoral 
Address of the Conference to the Societies. 

Mr. Watson's colleague in the missionary 
secretaryship during this and the following year 
was the Rev. George Marsden, who conducted 
the foreign correspondence, while Mr. Watson 
undertook the home department. It devolved 
upon the latter, therefore, to prepare the annual 
report of the state of the missions, all the peri- 
odical publications, the official correspondence 
with the government, and every thing that it 
might be requisite to publish in relation to the 
missions. 

The first general report of the missions 
which it fell to Mr. Watson's lot to draw up 
was published in the latter part of the year 
1816. The facts v/hich it presented were of 
the most cheering kind. Through the blessing 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON". 



143 



of God, the missions had prospered abroad ; 
and the pecuniary supplies for their support 
and enlargement, raised by the pious liberality 
of the friends at home, had greatly increased. 
Nineteen additional missionaries had, in the 
course of the year, been sent to different parts 
of the world ; making the whole number of 
missionaries employed on foreign stations, un- 
der the direction of the Methodist Conference, 

EIGHTY. 

A few short extracts from this " Report," 
which was written almost immediately after 
Mr. Watson's official connection with the mis- 
sions, will serve to show the spirit in which he 
entered upon his work, and the eloquent and 
forcible character of his appeals to those by 
whom the cause was supported. 

" The committee have to congratulate the 
subscribers in general on the increase of the 
funds.* The receipts of the year have more 
than equalled the large expenditure, besides the 
payment of large arrears. This the committee 
ascribe, under the blessing of God, to the ope- 
ration of missionary societies, adult and juve- 
nile, formed in different parts of the kingdom ; 

* The contributions to the missionary cause amounted 
this year to about $50,000, being upward of $4,000 more 
than those of any preceding year. 



144 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

and carried, in some places, with great zeal, 
into full efficiency. Here the rich and the 
poor have met together ; the aged, and the 
youth, and the child, have united in the service 
of Christ, ^nd presented their offerings to his 
cause ; and the committee trust that, wherever 
it is practicable, the recommendation of the 
conference of 1814, on this subject, will be 
adopted, that the supply may be constant as the 
moral necessities of an unsaved world ; and 
increasing as, by the providence of God, are 
the opportunities for communicating to it that 
only means of salvation, the gospel of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

" Increasing, however, as are our exertions, 
and those of almost ever}' other religious de- 
nomination, the committee would still keep it 
impressed upon the minds of all who have so 
willingly co-operated with them in these at- 
tempts to spread the knowledge of Christ, that 
little has been done by any body of Christians 
separately, or by all collectively, in comparison 
of what remains to be done. 

" Immense shades of darkness still remain 
unpierced by a ray of heavenly light. Em- 
pires, composed of hundreds of millions of 
souls, still remain under the power of Satan ; 
and the worship of idols and devils still robs 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 145 

* God over all, blessed for ever,' of the worship 
due to his holy name by his redeemed crea- 
tures. While the world presents such an as- 
pect, there is surely enough of wretchedness 
to keep alive our sympathies, and Enough of 
sin to rouse iato vivid operation the feelings of 
indignant jealousy for the honour of the Lord 
of hosts. The debt of the Christian world to 
the heathen remains undischarged. It has run 
awfully into arrears ; and the favourable oppor- 
tunities of access to every part of the pagan 
world are infallible indications that the Gover- 
nor and Judge of the world, and especially of 
the churches, now demands its payment. The 
successes of the missions of modern times are 
certainly not a discharge from the service, but 
the strongest incitements to pledge every en- 
ergy anew to its holy objects. The efficiency 
of the gospel has been again demonstrated in 
our own day in the conversion and salvation 
of heathens of every class, of every clime, and 
of every form of pagan superstition. Every 
missionary enterprise, if prudently, and, above 
all, if piously, undertaken, — if it be consecrated 
by singleness of view, and supported by pray- 
er, — has a moral certainty of success. Every 
sign of the time indicates that the period is 
fully come when the outcasts of men shall be 
10 



146 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

remembered, and they who are ready to perish 
shall obtain mercy. Pressing, therefore, as 
the state of affairs is, the committee are per- 
suaded that the last retrenchment which any 
person ali^^e to the glory of God, and the salva- 
tion of men, will make, whenever obliged to 
make retrenchment, will be the sums he has 
devoted, first to the support of religion at home, 
and, second, to the natural and necessary con- 
sequence of the former, the extension of reli- 
gion abroad. God calls, and his people follow. 
He who still goes on ' from conquering to con- 
quer,' now more evidently puts himself at the 
head of his sacram.ental host. The battle is 
turned to the gate ; and none, it is hoped, will 
be found treacherous to the grand and momen- 
tous struggle, none who will not wield his 
weapon in the war, or stretch out his hand to 
replenish the treasury. ' Signs of the Son of 
man signs of glory and conquest, transfuse a 
new vigour into the heart, and spread new 
prospects to the hopes of the righteous. ' Bel 
boweth down, Nebo stoopeth the light of the 
morning, on the tops of the mountains, catches 
the waiting eyes of those who sit in the sha- 
dow of death. The captive exile hastens that 
he may be delivered. ' The whole creation' 
of rational creatures, crushed beneath the ac* 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



147 



cumulated weight of the tyrannizing supersti- 
tinos of ages, ' groaneth and travaileth in pain 
to be delivered from the bondage of corruption.' 
All is preparation and movement. ' The rod 
of his strength is gone out of Zion,' and he 
must ' reign in the midst of his enemies.' His 
' people,' too, are ' willing in the day of his 
power ;' and nothing remains to give them their 
full share in th^ blessing and glory of that vic- 
tory, v/hich is to reassert the rights of God to 
the love and homage of a world of redeemed 
men, but that they be ' steadfast and immovea- 
ble, always abounding in the work of the Lord.' 
Their labour, directed by his word, and ani- 
mated by his Spirit, cannot be in vain." 

Mr. Watson was the writer of nearly all the 
Annual Reports, from this period to the close 
of his life. His interest in the cause of mis- 
sions never flagged ; and his zeal for their ad- 
vancement suffered no abatement, until his 
hands had ceased to labour, and his heart to 
beat. 

" During the two years," says Mr. Marsden, 
" in which we acted together as secretaries, 
and the three following years, in which he 
continued in the same office, and I had to act 
as one of the general treasurers, I had frequent 
opportunities of witnessing his earnest desire 



148 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



to promote the interests of the Redeemer in the 
heathen world. Whenever the question of the 
establishment of a new mission, or the enlarge- 
ment of one of our old stations, came before the 
committee, he was always ready to advocate the 
further extension of the work, whenever there 
appeared a providential opening, and a proba- 
bility of success. Though our funds were fre- 
quently exhausted, he relied confidently upon 
the providence of God for those supplies which 
would be rendered necessary. 

" Frequently have I admired the accuracy 
of his judgment in suggesting the stations to 
which the temper, habits, talents, and acquire- 
ments of missionary candidates were adapted. 
When six or eight young men have been ex- 
amined and approved by the committee, after 
being duly recommended by their respective 
circuits and district meetings, it has been a 
question of no ordinary moment, both in regard 
to themselves, and the work in which they 
were to be employed, in v/hat particular parts 
of the mission field they should be respectively 
appointed to labour. In such cases I have 
almost invariably found that we might safely 
rely upon Mr. Watson's judgment. 

" During the five years in which we were 
associated together in the mission work, and 



LIFE OF RICHARD Y\'ATSOX. 



149 



which frequently required much time and exer- 
tion, he never relaxed in regular ministerial 
labours. He generally attended his appoint- 
ments in the circuit, both on the Lord's day, 
and the week-day evenings. All his powers, 
mental and bodily, were consecrated to the 
service of God." 

In the spring of 1817, ]\Ir. Watson, at the 
request of the missionary committee, published 
a defence of the missions to the slaves in the 
West Indies, against the misrepresentations 
and calumnies of the planters and others. 

These missions were commenced in 1760, 
under circumstances strikingly providential, 
and had been carried on with admirable zeal 
and success, at a vast expense of life and mo- 
ney. Several of the planters were humane 
men, and encouraged the religious instruction 
of their slaves ; for they found the converted 
negroes were honest, and from a sense of duty 
discharged the task allotted them. But others 
were decidedly hostile to all attempts at negro 
improvement ; with them the spiritual in 
terests of the negro were either the subjects of 
profane ridicule, or were absolutely forgotten. 

The object of the missionaries was purely 
spiritual. They saw the people perishing in 
ignorance and sin ; and felt themselves bound 



150 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



to obey the Saviour's command, that repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached 
in his name among all nations." They taught 
the negroes Christianity, with reference to the 
salvation of their souls, having no ulterior de- 
sign whatever. They united them together in 
Christian societies ; explained to them the 
necessity, permanence, and sanctity of the 
marriage tie ; united them together in holy 
matrimony ; watched over their religious 
and moral conduct ; and inculcated the 
duties of contentment, submission, and dili- 
gence. 

All this, however, was insufficent to allay 
.the apprehensions of those who imagined that 
their interests were concerned in the con- 
tinuance of slavery, and who therefore en- 
deavoured to arrest the progress rf religious 
instruction. To accomplish their purpose 
they subjected the missionaries to every 
species of annoyance and persecution, hoping 
by these means to drive them from the 
islands. Oppressive laws were enacted by 
the colonial legislatures ; the congregations 
disturbed, and the preachers assaulted, by mobs 
of the civilized inhabitants ; while tales of in- 
surrection were continually invented, in which 
the missionaries were sure to be implicated. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



15J 



They also endeavoured to excite the odium 
of the British government and people against the 
missionaries by representing that, imder the 
cloak of religion, they taught disobedience to 
masters, and inculcated a spirit of sedition among 
the slaves. To these, and other charges, which 
were advanced in the House of Commons, in 
the public papers, and in pamphlets, Mr. Wat- 
son published a reply, under the title of " A 
Defence of the Wesleyan Methodist Missions 
in the West Indies : including a Refutation of 
the charges in Mr. Marryatt's 'Thoughts on 
the Abolition of the Slave Trade,' and other 
Publications ; with Facts and Anecdotes illus- 
trative of the moral state of the Slaves, and of 
the operation of the Missions." The publica- 
tion of this pamphlet was a seasonable antidote 
to the unfounded calumnies against the mis- 
sionaries in the West Indies, which were then 
urged with such frequency and vehemxcnce, that 
they had already begun to make an injurious 
impression upon the public ; and it afforded 
the friends of the missions a ground of honest 
triumph and congratulation. Never was the 
defence of a righteous cause more complete. 
The author's piety, eloquence, philanthropy, 
and powers of argumentation, were all brought 
to bear upon his subject with admirable effect. 



152 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



For the publication of this defence of the 
missions, Mr. Watson, at the next conference, 
which was held at Sheffield in July and Au- 
gust, 1817, received the unanimous thanks of 
that body. 

In consequence of the rapid increase in the 
business and operations of the missions, the 
same conference resolved, " That suitable pre- 
mises for a Methodist missionary house and 
office shall be immediately procured, in some 
central situation in London, affording sufficient 
accommodation for the orderly transaction of 
all our missionary business, and for a depot of 
proper articles which are wanted in the outfit 
of missionaries.' 

It was also felt that the plan upon which the 
Methodist missions were conducted was some- 
what anomalous. A missionary society was 
formed in almost every district in the connec- 
tion ; but there was no general society, which 
could hold its annual meeting, and to which 
the proceedings of the executive committee 
could be regularly reported. The conference, 
therefore, directed the committee to draw up a 
plan for a " General Wesleyan Missionary 
Society," which should hold its anniversary in 
• London about the month of May, and to which 
all the district societies should be considered 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



153 



auxiliaries. The plan thus formed was to be 
laid before the next conference for its approval. 

Shortly after his return from the conference 
Mr. Watson was called to preach at the open- 
ing of the new chapel in Queen-street. The 
occasion was one of considerable interest, the 
chapel being the largest that the Method- 
ists had erected in London since the year 
1777, when that in the City-Road was built; 
and it was more highly ornamented than any 
other place of worship then occupied by them 
in the metropolis. The dedication took place 
on Thursday, September 29th, 1817, when Mr. 
Benson preached in the morning, Mr. Newton 
in the afternoon, and Mr. Watson in the even- 
ing. 

The missionary "Report" for 1817, which was 
prepared by Mr. Watson, was full of gratifying 
intellio^ence. The contributions durinor the vear 
had amounted to the noble sum of $ 8 1 ,830. The 
number of missionaries also had been greatly 
increased. Six additional ones had been sent 
to Newfoundland ; three to Canada ; three to 
Nova Scotia ; eight to the West Indies : one 
to Sierra Leone ; and three to Ceylon. 

Not the least interesting item in the " Re- 
port," was the fact that missionary societies 
had been formed on several of the mission sta- 



154 LIFE OF RICHARD Vv^ATSON. 



tions. Those who through the instrumentality 
of missions had received the gospel, felt it 
their duty to assist in extending the same bless- 
ing to such as were yet destitute of it. " We," 
said a female slave, v/hen bringing her contri- 
])ution to the Demerara Missionary Society, 
" ought, of all persons, to help our poor fellow 
creatures. Once we had not the gospel ; but 
the people of England have sent it to us ; and 
we ought to help in sending it all over the 
world." 

In the early part of 1818 Mr. Watson pub- 
lished a defence of the commonly received 
opinion of the eternal Sonship of Christ, in an- 
swer to the objections of Dr. Adam Clarke, 
Mr. Watson's pamphlet was entitled, Re- 
marks on the Eternal Sonship of Christ ; and 
the Use of Reason in Matters of Revelation : 
suggested by several Passages in Dr. Adam 
Clarke's Commentary on the New Testament." 
It was considered one of the ablest defences of 
that doctrine ; and the Rev. Robert Hall spoke 
of it in terms of high commendation. It was 
read with great avidity ; and so rapid was the 
sale that a second edition was called for in a 
few weeks. 

The most valuable and important part of the 
work is that in which the author points out the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOI^. 



155 



use of reason in matters of revelation. On this 
subject he remarks : — " The office of reason is, 
to judge of the evidence of the record profess- 
inor to be a revelation from God. Wiien we are 
satisfied of the divine authority of Scripture, 
our understanding is to be employed humbly, 
and with dependance upon God, in ascertain- 
ing its sense : and whatever doctrine is there 
stated, or necessarily implied by the harmony 
of its different parts, is to be admitted, believed, 
and held fast, whether it corroborate or contra- 
dict the notions which our previous or collate- 
ral reasonings have led us to adopt." 

" I know," he continues, " that it is more 
flattering to the human mind to be accounted a 
judge, than to be reduced to the rank of a 
scholar ; to be placed in a condition to sum- 
mon divine wisdom to its bar, and oblige it to 
give an account of the reasons of its decisions, 
than to receive them upon authority ; but this 
is the safe, because the humble, path : and I 
greatly mistake, if it be not also the true way 
to high illumination in the things of God. It 
is to the patient, prayerful study of divine truth, 
by its own light, that its harmonies, and con- 
nections, and beauties most freely reveal them- 
selves ; as the bud discloses to the solar light 
the graces it refuses to the hand of violence." 



156 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

According to the direction of the conference, 
the committee who were intrusted with the 
management of the missions prepared the plan 
of a General Wesleyan Missionary Society. 
The principal feature of this plan was, that it 
called into exercise the good sense and practical 
knowledge of pious laymen in connection with 
the missionary work, by making them mem- 
bers of the managing committee ; reserving to 
the preachers only the examination of mission- 
aries, and all cases of discipline, according to 
the usages of the body. This plan, which was 
drawn up by Mr. Watson, v/ith the advice of 
his brethren, received the cordial sanction of 
the conference of 1818, to whom it was sub- 
mitted for approval. 

At this conference Mr. Watson was appointed 
to labour in the London west circuit. His col- 
leagues in the missionary secretaryship were 
the Rev. Messrs. Jabez Bunting and Joseph 
Taylor, the latter of whom was directed to re- 
side at the mission-house, and give his whole 
attention to the concerns of the missions. This 
arrangement was rendered necessary by the 
increased extent of the missions ; it being im- 
possible for the secretaries to carry on the ne- 
cessary correspondence, and pay the requisite 
attention to the instruction and outfit of the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



157 



missionaries, and at the same time to discharge 
efficiently their pastoral duties. 

In October, 1818, 3-Ir. Watson, at the request 
of the committee of that institution, preached 
the annual sermon before the Sunday School 
Union, from ]\Iark ix, 36, 37. The sermon, 
which was entitled Religious Instruction an 
Essential Part of Education," was afterward 
published at the request of the committee, and 
quickly passed through two or three editions. 

It was in the year 1819 that the Wesleyan 
Conference commenced the practice of pub- 
lishing an annual address to the societies. 
These addresses have been productive of much 
benefit to the ^lethodist connection. They have 
served to strengthen the bond of union between 
the conference and the societies ; and to com- 
municate much important pastoral advice, both 
in regard to personal religion, and the various 
branches of Christian duty. The first of these 
addresses, and also several of the succeeding 
ones, were drawn up by Mr. Watson, who ex- 
celled in this species of composition. 



158 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Missionary Report for 1819 — Mr. Watson visits the counties of 
Cornwall and Norfolk — Letter to a friend suffering under domestic 
affliction— Mr. Emory's visit to the British Conference — Mr. Wat- 
son's correspondence with the missionaries — Observations on 
Southey's Life of Wesley — Missionary reports for 1820— Anniver- 
sary of the Missionary Society in 1821 — Preparatory religious ex- 
ercises — Conference of 1821 — Mr. Watson appointed one of the 
resident missionary secretaries — Letter to his daughter — Becomes 
a private member of a class— Letter to a missionary — Letter to 
Mrs. Watson— Missionary report for 1821 — Second visit to Corn- 
wall — Letter to Mr. Walton — Mr. Watson's spirit at missionary 
anniversaries — Anniversary of the General Society in 1822. 

Although Mr. Watson was diligent in at- 
tending to his pastoral duties, and was ready 
for every good Avork, yet it was in the mission- 
ary department that his heart was more espe- 
cially interested ; and its regular advancement 
was to him a source of solid gratification. The 
"Report" for 1819 stated that the number of 
missionaries then actually employed under the 
direction of the conference was one hundred 
and twenty, and that the committee were about 
to send out twenty-four additional ones ; while 
the contributions to the society during the year 
had amounted to $108,838, being an increase of 
more than $21,000 over that of the preceding 
year. 

In the months of February and April, 1820, 
Mr. Watson, accompanied by Mr. Bunting, 



LIFE OF RICHARD Vv'ATSOX. 



159 



visited the counties of Conivrall and Xorfolk, 
for tlie purpose of advoca.ting tlie cause of mis- 
sions from tlie pulpit and the platform. The 
result of their visit to Cornvrall is thus stated 
in a letter written from Truro, in ]\Iarch, by the 
Rev. Richard Treffry. sen. : — 

In the course of the last month, the Rev, 
^Messrs. Bunting and Watson, two of the gene- 
ral secretaries of the AVesleyan Z\iissionary 
Society, paid a visit to Cornwall ; where, be- 
sides preaching in the principal places, in the 
different circuits of that district, they held pub- 
lic meetings in Penzance, Camborne, Helsion, 
Falmouth, and Truro. Xever was there a 
greater interest excited among the religious 
part of the inhabitants of that county, than on 
these occasions ; and thouG"h the meetings were 
continued from five to six hours, and the cha- 
pels uncommonly crowded, yet the people 
gladly continued to the end. Besides the pub 
lie collections, which Vv'ere more liberal than 
were ever remembered in Cornwall, we confi- 
dently expect, from the more regular organiza- 
tion of an auxiliary society for that district, and 
branch societies for the several circuits, that 
the missionary fund Vv'ill receive considerable 
assistance.'' 

Messrs. Bunting and Watson expressed them- 



160 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON 



selves as highly gratified with their tour in Corn- 
wall. The Cornish Methodists exemplified the 
motto of their country; a.nd came forward '^one 
and all," to assist in sending the gospel to the 
heathen. 

The following is an extract of a letter ad- 
dressed by Mr. Watson to an esteemed friend, 
who was then in deep distress on account of 
domestic affliction : — 

" To Mr. William Walton, of Wakefield. 

" London, June 5th, 1820. 
" My Dear Sir, — I should have written be- 
fore, but that I had an expectation of being 
called into Leicestershire on some private busi- 
ness, when I fully intended to visit Wakefield, 
in order to sympathize with you in the troubles 
in which you have lately been involved. I now 
find that I cannot have that opportunity ; for 
though I am going to Nottingham next week, 
to the missionary meeting, that meeting is con- 
nected with some others on my way back, so 
that I cannot possibly get further north. If it 
be possible, I will call upon you in returning 
from the conference. 

You have had a large share of trouble ; but 
it is your mercy that you know where your 
help lies ; and that you have proved the power 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 161 

and grace of Jesus, our Saviour, to comfort all 
who are in affliction. What a lesson is all this 
on the vanity of earth, and all it contains ! 
How necessary it is to possess more than 
creature comforts, which perish in the using ! 
Let us thank God that the best blessings are 
secured to us by a title which can never be 
shaken ; by the faithful word of Him who is 
* the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, 
" I indulged the hope when I last left your 
peaceful habitation, that you had escaped all 
the storms of life, and w^ere anchored in a quiet 
haven, until the signal should be given for your 
return to your Father's house above ; but there 
is mercy in every appointment, though we can- 
not always see it ; and ' all things work together 
for good to them that love God ;' and ' Lo, I 
am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world.' On these promises may your faith 
steadily repose ! There is a harbour, into which 
no w^ave of trouble shall roll after us ; and for 
that may we all stand prepared, that so an en- 
trance may be ministered to us abundantly into 
its everlasting quietness and rest." 

The conference of 1820, which was held in 
Liverpool, was favoured with the presence of 
the Rev. John Emory, who attended as the 
11 



162 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



representative of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in America, and was received in the 
most cordial and friendly manner. His preach- 
ing, conversation, and Christian spirit excited 
a lively interest ; and the details which he gave 
of the work of God in America were of the 
most cheering kind. Mr. Watson, at the re- 
quest of the conference, drew up the answer to 
the address of the bishops of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which had been brought by 
Mr. Emory. In this document, speaking of 
Mr. Emory, he says,— 

" In him we have recognised the purity of 
your doctrine, and the fervour and simplicity 
of your piety. We have received him ' not as 
a stranger,' but ^ as a brother beloved.' Our 
hearts are as his heart ; and it will be remem- 
bered as one of the most pleasing circumstances 
connected with the conference held in this 
town, that our personal intercourse with you 
was here restored, and that this work of love 
was committed to so able and excellent a bro- 
ther, whose public ministrations, and addresses 
in our conference, have been equally gratifying 
and instructive to us and to our people." 

At this conference Mr. Watson was returned 
a third year to the London west circuit ; and 
was also continued, with his two associates, in 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



163 



the office of missionary secretary. Of the 
duties of the secretaryship, which were 
onerous, and also involved considerable re- 
sponsibility, that of corresponding with the 
missionaries, which now devolved upon Mr. 
Watson, was not one of the least important. 
Some of the missionaries were young men, and 
needed instruction ; others were placed in cir- 
cumstances of great and pressing difficulty, and 
applied for advice. Occasionally, a missionary, 
especially in an unhealthy climate, would en- 
danger his life by excessive labour, and it was 
needful to exhort him to moderation, that he 
might not offer to God murder for sacrifice. In 
some of the stations much preparatory work 
was necessary, and the missionary, after years 
of toil, saw but little fruit of his labours ; and 
he was therefore in danger of growing weary 
and faint in his mind, and his case called for 
affectionate sympathy and encouragement. Mr. 
Watson's resources, however, were equal to 
every emergency; and his correspondence with 
the missionaries was distinguished by great 
piety, affection, and fidelity ; admirably adapted 
to " stir up their pure minds by way of remem- 
brance," and excite them to cultivate their talents, 
and maintain the spirit of Christian godliness. 
In addition to the duties connected with his 



164 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



circuit and the missions, Mr. Watson was now 
called upon to use his pen in defence of Me° 
thodism and its venerable founder. In the 
early part of 1820, a work entitled " The Life 
of Wesley, and the Rise and Progress of Me- 
thodism, by Robert Southey, Poet-Laureate,'' 
was published in two large volumes. This pub 
lication did justice to Mr. Wesley's great abili 
ties, to his attainments as a scholar, and his fine 
temper as a man and a controversialist ; it also 
acknowledo'ed the extensive moral o^ood w^hich 
had been effected through his instrumentality, 
and was on the whole much less severe in its 
censures than, from the well-known principles 
of its author, had been anticipated. But not- 
w^ithstanding this, its misrepresentations of the 
doctrines of Methodism, and the character of 
Mr. Wesley, arising from the writer's high- 
church prejudices, and his gross ignorance on 
the subject of evangelical religion, were such 
that a defence of both was deemed necessary. 
The Wesleyan book committee accordingly 
requested Mr. Watson to prepare a review of 
M:. Southey's book ; and a resolution, approv- 
ing of this request, was passed at the confer- 
ence of 1820, where Dr. A. Clarke declared it 
as his opinion that Mr. Watson was the fittest 
man to undertake the responsible task. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



165 



Mr. Watson's reply was entitled, Observa- 
tions on Southey's Life of Wesley: being a 
Defence of the Character, Labours, and Opi- 
nions of the Founder of }>Iethodism, against 
the iMisiepresentations of that Publication." 
It was distinguished throughout by eloquence 
of language and force of reasoning ; and was 
not only a triumphant vindication of 'Mr. AYes 
ley, but also a masterly defence of some of the 
most important doctrines of Christianity against 
the opposition of science falsely so called." 

We give from this work a single extract, in 
which Mr, Watson notices the allegation, that 
Mr. Wesley was prompted by ambition," to 
his extraordinary course of labour. On this 
subject he forcibly remarks : — It is mere tri- 
fling to speak of ' ambition,' in the case of Air. 
Wesley, in any but the best sense. Wealth, it 
is acknowledged, was not his object ; the only 
honour he met with was to be reproached and 
persecuted ; 8.nd the poicer of which we have 
heard so much, was the pov/er to manage the 
affairs of a despised and a poor people. What 
was there in this to tempt that low and corrupt 
ambition which Air. Southey ascribes to him ? 
I fear that ambitious clero^ymen mav now be 
ft)und in the Established Church : let then the 
question of Mr. Wesley's ambition be put to the 



166 I^IFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

proof ? Will any of tliem come among us to 
seek its gratification ? We will give them as 
many advantages for obtaining the * notoriety' 
which Mr. Wesley possessed as possible. 
They shall have enough of duty, long walks, 
and longer rides, and fields and streets to 
preach in, and the darkest parts of the country, 
and the rudest of the people, and the hardest 
fare. In proportion, too, as they imitate the 
zeal of the Weeleys, we will show them all 
honour and respect on our part ; and they will 
not lack that reproach of which the world is 
not much more parsimonious in the present 
day, than when the names of the Wesleys 
were cast out as evil. It will not fail to ca- 
lumniate them while living, if they give it too 
much disturbance ; and perhaps some future 
poet-laureate may lay by his birth-day and co- 
ronation odes to asperse them when dead. AVill 
all this tempt their ambition ? I suppose not. 
Neither in their day nor night dreams does 
Methodism ever occur to them as the road to 
honour ; and yet if it opened to Mr. Wesley so 
fine a field for the gratification of his ambition, 
why should not theirs press into the same 
course, in the hope of seizing the same prize ? 
Have they learning ? So had he. Have they 
prospects in the Church ? So had he. Have 



LIFE OF RICHARD "WATSOX. 



167 



they ambition ? So, ^,h. Southey tells us, had 
he. How then is it that he alone, of all the 
ambitious clergymen we ever heard or read of, 
was impelled by it into the course he adopted; 
and that none besides himself ever thought that 
field preaching and itinerancy opened the v> ay 
to a distinction sufficient to allay the ambitious 
appetite of any ' conqueror,' or any ^ poet V I 
leave the difficulty to be explained by him who 
created it.'* 

In the spring of 1821 Mr. Watson visited 
several large towns in different parts of the 
country, for the purpose of assisting at the an- 
niversaries of missionary societies. He also 
prepared the Report of the General Society for 
1820, which he read at the annual meeting, 
and which described the prosperous state of the 
missions. The number of missionaries was in- 
creased to nearly one hundred and fifty ; the 
stations occupied were more than a hundred; 
and upward of twenty-seven thousand mem- 
bers were united in church fellowship, under 
the care of the missionaries, and the fruit of 
their labours. 

At this meeting there was an unusual display of 
Christian liberality; the contributions amounting 
to upward of S4,T00. A spirit of holy triumph 
and zeal pervaded the assembly, which was 



168 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

greatly promoted by the preparatory religious 
exercises. In reference to this fact, Mr. Wat- 
son, in his account of the meeting, in the " Mis- 
sionary Notices," made the following remarks : 
— " The three sermons usual on this occasion 
were preached on Thursday and Friday, April 
26 and 27, by the Rev. Messrs, Buckley, New- 
ton, and Lessey. We take this opportunity of 
remarking, that we are more than ever con- 
vinced of the great importance of connecting 
such services with the public meetings of mis- 
sionary societies, whether in town or country. 
They greatly tend, by the divine blessing, to 
produce a serious and hallowed tone of feeling. 
For public meetings, as affording the very best 
facilities for the communication of important 
intelligence, both as to the incipient success, 
and as to the still existing necessity of mis- 
sionary labours, we are sincere and decided 
advocates. We believe they are greatly bless- 
ed by Almighty God, not only in the excite- 
ment, but in the proper and efficient direction 
of benevolent zeal and activity; and that if 
they were neglected or discouraged, a large 
portion of our present means of doing good 
must at once be (in our judgment most foolishly 
and criminally) abandoned. But if missionary 
sermons, without meetings, would leave the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 169 



work in most cases but half done ; we fear, on 
the other hand, that missionary meetings, un- 
connected with sermons, suited to the solemn 
occasion, and with other special and appropri- 
ate exercises of social devotion, would soon 
lose, by such omission, more than half of their 
present blessing to ourselves, and of their 
eventual utility to those for whose illumination 
and salvation they are principally convened. 
For the various inform.ation on missionary to- 
. pics, and for the free and spirited displays of 
Christian eloquence, which characterize a good 
public meeting, we are best prepared when w^e 
take time and pains to ' sanctify ' the Vv hole 
system ' by the word of God and prayer.' 
Much of this holy influence, vre trust, was felt 
in our late general meeting, as the result, un- 
der God, of the three annual sermons to which 
we have referred ; and of those w^hich were 
preached in various chapels on the sabbath." 

Mr. Watson attended the conference of 1821, 
wJiich was held in ^^lanchester, uncertain as to 
the place ^vhere his future lot would be cast. 
At that time London was only divided into two 
circuits ; and as he had been stationed in both 
of them, he could not, consistently with the 
rules of the connection, be reappointed to the 



170 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



metropolis as an itinerant preacher.* The 
friends in Birmingham were anxious to secure 
his labours, and urgently solicited his appoint- 
ment to their circuit. In consequence of the 
growing extent and importance of the missions, 
it was necessary that the society should em- 
ploy a second resident secretary, in order to 
their efficient and successful management: 
Mr. Watson's long experience, established cha- 
racter as a public man, distinguished ability, 
and active habits, all pointed him out as emi- 
nently qualified for that very responsible situa- 
tion ; and the committee pressed the confer- 
ence to fix him in that station. During the sit- 
ting of the conference, and while the question 
of his destination was undecided, he addressed 
a letter, of which the following is an extract, 

" To Mr. William Walton, Wakefield. 

''Manchester, July, 1821. 
" My Dear Friend, — Thinking that it might 
interest you to know how we are going on at 
conference, I send you a slight sketch. Mr. G. 
Marsden has been elected president, and Mr. 
Newton is the secretary. We are going on 

* Among the Wesleyan Methodists a preacher cannot 
be reappointed to a circuit until after an interval of seven 
years. 



LIFE OF RICHARD AVATSOX. 



171 



well, and harmoniously. The increase in the 
societies has been upward of nine thousand at 
home, and about one thousand three hundred 
in our foreign missions. Blessed be God I 

Our finances are also very rapidly improv- 
ing. 'More than sixty persons have offered 
themselves as travelling preachers, and most 
of them for the missions ; so that we shall have 
no lack of men, if we can but get the money to 
send and support them. 

"Where I shall be placed, I do not yet 
know ; whether London or Birmingham. How- 
ever, I can say that I only wish to be where I 
may best serve the great cause of Jesus Christ. 

" While I am writing, the preachers are 
speaking of good !\Ir. Benson and many inter- 
esting anecdotes have been mentioned respect- 
ing his great character and extensive useful- 
ness. ' Our fathers, where are the}' ? and the 
prophets, do they live for ever V j>Iay we also 
be ready 

After the comparative claims of the missions 
and the Birmingham circuit had been fully 
heard and balanced in the conference, it was 
determined that Air. W'atson should remain in 
London, as one of the resident missionary se- 

* Mr. Benson died in the early part of 1821. 



172 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

cretaries ; an office which he sustained with 
the highest credit to himself, and advantage to 
the cause, for six successive years. This ap- 
pointment was suited to his declining health ; 
and it secured to him greater leisure than he 
had enjoyed for several years. His duties 
were, indeed, numerous and urgent ; but he 
was freed from the cares and engagements of 
the itinerant ministry, and generally spent his 
evenings in his study. The time which he 
could thus command he devoted to the compo- 
sition of valuable theological works, by which 
he rendered essential service to the cause of 
religion. 

Durinor the sittino^s of this conference Mr. 
Watson addressed the follov/ing letter to his 
daughter. It shows the tenderness of his afFec- 
tion as a father, and his earnest desire for her 
mental improvement and spiritual interests 

''Manchester, July 3 1^/^, 1821. 
" My Dear Mary, — From one of your uncle's 
letters I learn that you are still at Portsmouth ; 
and as we are not to remove from London this 
year, I am not anxious about your stay being a 
little prolonged, as I hope it may be favourable 
to your health, and fit you for closer applica- 
tion on your return. I hope, however, to see 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



173 



you on my return, which I expect will be in 
about a week or ten days. 

" The kindness of friends to you I feel as an 
obligation to myself. Thank them for yourself 
and me. 

" I trust, my dear girl, that you have not neg- 
lected to meet in class; nor to remember that 
the good desires which by the mercy of God 
you have received must be carefully cultivated. 
In order to this, spend s.ome part of your time 
every day in private, in reading God's holy 
word, and in praying to your Father who seeth 
in secret. Choose the good part, which shall 
not be taken from you : and live every day as 
a person who has chosen it. Let your inter- 
couiTse with others be cheerful, but serious ; 
and let the fear of an all-seeing God never de- 
part from you. 

We are getting on pretty well and expe- 
ditiously with business, and hope soon to come 
to a conclusion. I write this in conference, 
and have no time for a long epistle. 

" God bless you, my dearest child !" 

Mr. Watson, being now released from the 
cares and responsibilities of the pastoral office, 
was enabled to direct his entire attention to 
the concerns of the missions, and to literary 



174 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



pursuits. There was, however, one disad- 
vantage connected with his change of situ- 
ation, as by it he w^as cut off from the ad- 
vantage of Christian fellowship which he had 
enjoyed in the quarterly visitation of the class- 
es, and in other meetings of similar kind ; and 
his pure mind" was consequently no longer 
" stirred up by way of remembrance," as it had 
formerly been, by regularly listening to recitals 
of Christian experience. Convinced that " the 
communion of saints," according to the aposto- 
lic admonition, (Heb. x, 25,) w^as one of the 
most effectual means of promoting personal 
piety, he entered his name as a private mem- 
ber of a class, under the care of Mr. Wright 
Turnell, an aged Methodist, whose religious 
character had been tried by great vicissitudes 
of life. He could tell many a tale of early 
Methodism, and describe the preaching of the 
Wesleys, and Mr. Fletcher, and Walter Sellon, 
and their contemporaries ; but that which re- 
commended him to Mr. Watson was his deep 
and simple piety. The class consisted mostly 
of poor people, accustomed to daily labour ; but 
they were spiritual worshippers of God ; their 
hearts and treasure were in heaven ; and they 
used to meet together weekly, to declare the 
goodness of the Lord, and to be helpers of each 



LIFE OF RICHARD vrATSOX 



175 



ollier's jov. AVith these siinple-hearted people 
Mr. AVatson was wont to associate once a 
week, in the evening, when his heahh would 
permit ; and their meetings, unobserved by the 
w^orld, were often seasons of great spiritual re- 
freshment and edification. On his appearance 
in the room, amonor his humble friends, he was 
generally requested to act the part of the class 
leader ; and it was observed that the advice 
v/hich he gave to each person, after inquiring 
into his state, was almost always expressed in 
the language of Scripture, in the application 
of which he possessed a remarkable facility. 
yh. Turn ell has long since been gathered to 
his fathers: but some members of the class 
survive ; and they often refer, with considerable 
emotion, to the time when Mr. AYatson belong- 
ed to their fraternity, took his seat among them 
as " a brother," and appeared 

" An easy, free, and but more knowing-friend." 

Mr, Watson's piety was observable in the 
whole of his conduct ; and it gave a richness 
and force to his correspondence with the mis- 
sionaries. The followins: letter was addressed 
to the Rev. Robert Young, an excellent young 
missionary, vv'ho had just entered upon his 
work at Kingston, Jamaica : — 



176 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



''London, Oct. 30th, 1821. 
" Dear Brother, — Your safe arrival, and 
promising entrance upon your work, give us 
pleasure. You have entered upon a very im- 
portant field of labour ; and you will find the 
following things necessary to keep before 
you. 

" 1. To speak, preach, and labour, every day, 
as though it were your last on earth ; as though, 
at the close of it, you were to give up your ac- 
count to your Saviour. 

" 2. To give part of every day to secret read- 
ing of the Scriptures, and earnest closet prayer. 
We must draw from the fountain, before we can 
fill the vessels of others. 

" 3. To read something useful in practical and 
doctrinal divinity, &c., every day. Let not 
your books remain unused. By a right appli- 
cation of your time you may accomplish this. 

" 4. To take care of your pulpit preparations. 
It is no reason for carelessness, that you preach 
to negroes. It requires more care and labour 
to prepare a plain sermon, clearly explaining 
important doctrine, and so illustrating it as to 
be beneficial to the ignorant, than to make a 
flashy, rhetorical, empty harangue. Let these 
preparations be fervently prayed over. 

" 5. To converse much in private with your 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



L/7 



class leaders, and other persons of some stand- 
ing in the society, in order to promote their 
Christian knowledge and piety ; that they may 
be props and stays to the society. You must, 
however, do this with dignity, and without fool- 
ish familiarity. 

" 6. To visit the sick as much as possible, 
and catechize children and adults. These 
are blessed exercises, and will not fail to be 
profitable to your own soul, and fruitful to 
others. 

" 7. To be always at your work, and in your 
work, public or private, leaving all common 
and worldly concerns and conversation to 
others, who have not your work to do. 

8. To act in the full spirit of your instruc- 
tions, whatever others may do, and endeavour 
in all your intercourse with your brethren to 
promote their spirituality and your own by holy 
converse. Remember to keep and send your 
journal. 

" With love to ]\Irs. Young and the brethren, 
I am yours truly." 

During the autumn of this year ]\Ir. AVatson 
attended missionary meetings at Leeds, Don- 
caster, and some other places, where he plead- 
ed the cause with his usual eloquence and 
12 



J 78 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

effect ; and while he gladdened the hearts of 
the people with statements of the past success 
of the missions, his own spirit was cheered b} 
the exhibitions of Christian zeal and liberalit) 
which everywhere met his view. These la 
hours were, however, performed under much 
feebleness of health, as will appear from the 
following letter, written to Mrs. Watson, in the 
course of his journey : — 

" Wainfleet, Thursday evening. 
" My Dearest Mary, — Through divine 
mercy I have been brought on my journey to 
this place, and have got through my work^ 
though with difficulty. My lungs have been 
very tender, and sometimes I have been very 
feeble ; but, upon the whole, I am not worse, 
and, I think, a little better ; and begin to hope 
that I shall get through all my appointments. 
At Raithby Hall I have been treated with great 
tenderness by Mrs. Brackenbury, who has been 
with me in her carriage to all the missionary 
meetings in the neighbourhood ; and taken me 
back, nursing me with great care. Thank God 
for these comforts, when they are so welcome. 
I have been a little low sometimes ; but upon 
the whole, I have rested on God, and felt that 
he was with me. 



LIFE OF RICHARD V/ATSOX. 179 

" I shall write again, God willing, from 
Leeds ; and, with care, I trust I shall get com- 
fortably through. To-morrow I join the steam 
packet to Lincoln, and on Saturday go to Ret- 
ford. 

The vv^eather has been mild and beautiful, 
which has been much in mv favour. 

" ]\Iy love to the dear children, v\'ho, I hope, 
are diligent in their studies. If you write on 
Monday, I shall get your letter on AVednesday. 
Do not fail. 

" May you be kept in health and peace un- 
der the protection of our blessed Saviour. Re- 
member me in your prayers. I am yours very 
truly and ever affectionately." 

From the annual report of the missions for 
1821 it appeared that eleven missionaries, se- 
veral of whom were married, had been sent 
out in the course of the year ; and that from 
many quarters of the work there were numer- 
ous and urgent calls for additional missionaries. 
The income of the society for the past year had 
amounted to $126,558, being much greater than 
that of any former year ; the expenditure, hovr- 
ever, during the same period had been so great 
as to leave a balance against the society of 
$35,950 ; a sum, which might have created 



180 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

some uneasiness had not the committee the 
utmost confidence that the work would not be 
suffered to want that aid which should support 
it, not only on its present, but even on a much 
more extended scale. 

In the early part of 1822 Mr. Watson, in 
conjunction with the Rev. Messrs. Reece and 
Taylor, visited Cornwall, where they spent 
about a month in preaching and attending mis- 
sionary meetings at some of the principal 
towns. They found the Cornish preachers and 
people of one heart in the blessed work. At 
all the meetings the attendance was exceed- 
ingly large ; the contributions were liberal be- 
yond all former precedent, and the concern 
manifested in behalf of the spiritual interests 
of the heathen world was evidently deep and 
ardent. 

On his return from Cornwall he began to 
prepare for a journey into the north, for the 
pupose of attending missionary anniversaries 
at some of the principal towns of Lancashire 
and Yorkshire ; but he was again assailed by 
disease and in a somewhat new form. The 
following letter describes his situation with a 
degree of pla^^fulness, which those persons will 
well understand who are just recovering from 
the complaint in question : — 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 181 

" To Mr. V/illiam Walton, Wakefield. 

" London, April 1st, 1822. 
" Dear Friend. — Two reasons have de- 
layed an answer to your kind letter : first, it 
arrived when I was in Cornwall ; second, that 
since the day after my return, I have been laid 
up with the gout ; and the attack has been so 
sharp, that for near three v\^eeks I have been 
confined to the sofa, not being able to take a 
step. I am now, however, so rapidly improv- 
ing, that I begin to feel it a matter of tolerable 
certainty, that I shall be able to set ofi" on my 
journey to Manchester at the latter end of the 
week ; or that, at all events, I shall reach 
Wakefield on the Wednesday before the meet- 
ing. 

" You will probably smile at my having the 
gout ; but so it is ; and no pleasant companion, 
I assure you, though kings and nobles so often 
make acquaintance v>7ithit. My general health, 
I thank God, is much better. 

" I shall again be most happy to see my old 
and beloved friends; and trust that we shall 
not meet together at the anniversary of your 
society in vain. 

" Our accounts from abroad are generally 
favourable. The work of God appears to his 
servants in many parts of the heathen world ; 



182 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



and his glory will, we trust, descend upon their 
children. Sickness and death have, however, 
made great inroads in many of our stations. 
We have lost seven missionaries in the West 
Indies during the year ; and four are disabled 
in India." 

The anniversaries of missionary societies 
were with Mr. Watson seasons of deep and 
hallowed feeling. The cheerfulness which he 
felt on these occasions at the sight of old 
friends, still engaged in the service of God ; 
and the grateful joy v/hich he cherished be- 
cause of past success, and the displays of 
Christian liberality which he was often priid- 
leged to witness, were chastened and tempered 
by the recollection that the far greater part of 
the population of our globe were still " sit- 
ting in darkness and the shadow of death." 
This state of things, he thought, called for so- 
lemn, earnest, and prevailing prayer, on the 
part of the church, for larger effusions of that 
divine influence which alone can render suc- 
cessful human efforts for the salvation of the 
souls of men. 

In the account which he gave in the Mis- 
sionary Notices of the services connected with 
the annual meeting of the general society for 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



183 



1822, he particularly specifies a public prayer 
meeting held in the City-Road chapel, at six 
o'clock in the morning, for the purpose of spe- 
cially imploring the divine blessing on the an- 
niversary, and on Christian 3»Iissions through- 
out the world. 

" This," he remarks, " was found by the min- 
isters and people who attended it to be a 
most edifying and delightful addition to the 
usual services of the occasion ; and we strongly 
recommend that, wherever it is practicable, a 
similar meeting should ahvays be included in 
the arrangements made for the anniversaries 
of auxiliary societies. We are persuaded that 
prayer — solemn, fervent, united prayer — is 
among the most necessary and most powerful 
of those means by which Christians are novr 
peculiarly called to promote the work and cause 
of God ; and that, in fact, vrithout an increase 
in their prayers, in connection with the con- 
tinuance and augmentation of their pecuniary 
contributions, the grand object of our common 
hope and effort, the conversion of the world, 
will never be accomplished. We rejoice, there- 
fore, in every indication of a growing spirit of 
supplication among those who take an active 
part in missionary institutions.*' 



184 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOxV. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Watson's attention to the instruction of missionaries — 
Letters to Dr. Ellis — Visits Brighton for the benefit of his health 
—Letter to his son— Pubhshes the first part of his Theological In- 
stitutes—Letter to Dr. M'Allum concerning a mission to the 
Holy Land — Letter to a friend on the use of organs in Methodist 
chapels — Observations on congregational singing— Publishes the 
second part of the Institutes—Compiles the Wesleyan Catechism 
— Publishes his sermon in defence of the religious instruction 
of the slaves in the West Indies — Visit to Oxford. 

One of the important objects to which Mr. 
Watson directed his attention after he became 
one of the resident missionary secretaries, was 
the theological training of the young men who 
were so happy as to be placed under his care 
previously to their entering upon the missionary 
work. " He took great pleasure," says Mr. 
Newstead, " in directing their minds, and as- 
sisting them in their studies. Several have 
acquired the classical, and some the oriental 
languages under his roof. And, indeed, whether 
from his conversations or advices, his prayers 
or directions, if any went from his house unim- 
proved, it must have been from their own inat- 
tention, or want of application. Under his roof, 
I had myself the happiness of bringing through 
the press the New Testament and Book of 
Common Prayer in the Indo-Portuguese ; and 
when I fully calculated on again returning to 



LIFE OF RICHaRD Vv^lTSON, 



185 



India, and was furnishing myself with additions 
to my library, I remember with what kind assi- 
duity he would walk out with me expressly to 
aid wath his judgment my various purchases, 
and to point out the best editions of classical 
and other authors, wath which his extensive 
reading had made him acquainted. I should 
indeed be uno^rateful, if I did not acknowledoe 
the great obligations under which I was laid 
by his kindness and by his wisdom, during the 
whole of my intercourse with him. I am among 
the many who have to be endlessly thankful 
that he ever existed." 

Notwithstanding Mr. Watson's general debi- 
lity at this time, [1822,] and his frequent at- 
tacks of illness, he continued to discharge the 
various duties of his office in a manner which 
was equally honourable to himself, and satis- 
factory to those with whom he was connected. 
Under w^hat circumstances he entered upon the 
year 1823 will appear from the following ex- 
tracts of letters, addressed to his kind friends 
Doctor and Mrs. Ellis, of Wakefield, who had 
pressed him to pay them a visit, and take up a 
temporary residence with them : — 

London, January 4:th, 1823. 
" My Dear Friend, — Your very kind and 
obliging invitation of a poor invalid has greatly 



186 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

affected me ; and I would sooner have said 
how much I am sensible of your and Mrs. El- 
lis's friendship, but that my state has been so 
precarious. I most sincerely thank you. 

" The complaint itself appears to have been 
subdued ; but the debility which has ensued 
has been very great; yet I trust that I am in 
the course of improvement. I am too green to 
venture on a journey yet, had I not had also 
another, but slight, attack of the gout in the 
foot. This will, I think, be very temporary ; 
and should it please God to raise me to a 
strength sufficient to travel, in a few weeks, I 
will accept your kindness, and give myself, by 
full relaxation, and your advice, and the blessing 
of God upon both, a chance of full restoration. 

" Our family afflictions have been increased 
by a visitation of the scarlet fever. Mary has 
had a very severe attack, and a little nephew. 
Whether Tom will escape is doubtful. Mrs. 
Watson is quite worn down. 

" In the midst of all we know that all is rigM, 
and that all is good. Thank God for the con- 
solation !" 

''London, Jan. 27th, J 823. 
" My Dear Friends, — The severity of the 
weather would alone prevent you from expect- 
ing me to fulfil my own purpose, and to meet 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



157 



your friendly invitation, in visiting Wakefield. 
Had it been otherwise, I hare not, however, 
been moveable to so great a distance. Till the 
last fortnight my debility increased ; and I cer- 
tainly Avas never brought so low in my life. 
Since then I have been under the tonic and re- 
storative process ; and, Vv"ith now and then a 
slip back, have been improving. 

" I trust that in this affliction I have learned 
something, though slow of heart to understand 
and to believe. The complaint, as you know, 
is accompanied with no small degree of press- 
ure on the spirits. I, at least, have found it so. 
I have thought of dying, and leaving my family 
at a crisis when they seemed most to need 
me ; or of living a poor, helpless invalid, in the 
poverty and neglect of a supernumerary preach- 
er ; and many more of these saddening reflec- 
tions have crowded in at different times. But 
to feel in the midst of every sinking, that you 
could set your foot upon a roclx. and stand se- 
cure, this is the privilege of faith ; and I thank 
God, I have it. However. I trust that some- 
thing brighter is opening ; and that, with great 
care, I shall be efficient, in a tolerable degree, 
a few years longer ; and live only for what life 
is worth, — to acquire a deeper acquaintance 
Avith God, and to be useful to men. 



188 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



" I thought I ought to inform you how I was 
going on, lest you should think I neglected 
your kind invitation ; and this must be my 
apology for a letter on that very poor subject — 
self. I hope to be able to accomplish the 
journey to Wakefield when the weather be- 
comes more mild and settled, and when I have 
got up the hill a little further. At present I do 
not go out ; nor have I left the house for the 
last six weeks." 

^'■London, February llth, 1823. 
" My Dear Friend, — I write in a state of 
mortification, at a disappointment. My medi- 
cal attendants have declared against my going 
northward in my present state of debility, and 
have ordered me to Brighton, to perfect what, 
1 thank God, is a state of slowly returning 
strength. The missionary committee took up 
the subject, and backed them ; and in vain I 
urged, that, though the air might be cooler, yet 
the friends I should visit were warmer, and that 
the inward enjoyment would make up all. To 
Brighton, therefore, I am driven ; and my place 
is taken for to-morrow." 

From Brighton, to which place he was ac- 
companied by Mrs. Watson, he addressed t?ie 
following letter to his son : — 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



189 



''Brighton, Feb. ISth, 1823. 

" Dear Tom, — After having been cheated 
by the Angel coach in the fare, and squeezed 
up in a six-inside old Islington stage, we ar- 
rived safely here. Through the mercy of God 
] feel my health improve, though the weather 
is cold. I got out to chapel twice yesterday ; 
and was thankful that again I was brought by 
Providence into the house of God, to worship 
at his footstool. 

" Thursday was a calm day ; but Friday and 
Saturday brought us gales and wind, and your 
mother was all wonder at the waves. The roar 
of the sea was in our ears night and day, and 
filled the mind with sublime thoughts of the 
power of the elements, and the might of their 
great Ruler. 

" We live in a curious sort of style, having 
every little thing to provide. Sometimes we 
are without butter when the meal comes, and 
we have to send out ; and then we wonder 
whether our remaining piece of bread will 
serve us for breakfast or tea ; so that we need 
a good deal of contrivance, and our forgetful- 
ness is often amusing. 

" Save an occasional visit from the preach- 
ers, we are not likely to be called upon by any 
person of intelligence or interest. 



190 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



" I hope you are diligent while at study ; 
and that you will leave yourself, by applica- 
tion, the leisure for exercise. You are now 
approaching man's estate, and must " put away 
childish things." Be thoughtful for your future 
prospects in life ; and, above all, give your 
heart to God. Seek him first; and you will 
not be without his providence to direct you in 
life ; and without that you will be wretched 
Make a point of reading a portion of Scripture 
every day, with prayer that you may obtain 
pardon, and experience that conversion without 
which you can never enter the kingdom of 
God. Write this upon your heart," 

Mr. Watson's visit to Brighton appears to 
have been attended with benefit to his health; 
in a letter written after his return to London, 
and dated April 1st, he speaks of himself as 
being, by divine mercy, so far restored as to be 
able to do a little work, and with a prospect of 
increasing strength. He did not, however, suffi- 
ciently recover to enable him this spring to afford 
his usual assistance at anniversaries of mission- 
ary societies in the country. But if he was cut off 
by indisposition from the active service to which 
he had been accustomed, he did not therefore 
allow his moments to " linger unemiployed 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



191 



but devoted them to the advancement of an im- 
portant theological work upon which he had 
been for some time engaged. 

Although Mr. Watson's pen was seldom idle, 
yet, up to this time, his publications had con- 
sisted mostly of single sermons, controversial 
pamphlets, missionary reports, communications 
to periodical works, and other productions of a 
similar kind. He had, however, long cherish- 
ed the design of producing something of a 
more permanent character. Recollecting the 
disadvantages under which he had laboured 
when he first went into a IMethodist circuit, and 
entered upon the study of divinity ; and being 
aware that many of his junior brethren were 
still in the same circumstances, he was desir- 
ous of preparing some work that should assist 
them in their theological studies. After some 
deliberation he determined to write a body of 
Christian theology. Upon this undertaking he 
entered in the fall of 1821, soon after his ap- 
pointment as one of the resident missionary 
secretaries, and to it he gave all the leisure 
which he could command. The work was en- 
titled, " Theological Institutes ; or a Yiew of 
the Evidences, Doctrines, and ^Morals of Chris- 
tianity," and was published at intervals in six 
parts. The first part appeared in the spring 



192 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

of 1823, and was remarkably well received, a 
second edition being soon called for. This work 
served to establish the reputation which the 
writer had previously acquired as an able di- 
vine and a profound reasoner. 

In the autumn of this year Mr. Watson ad- 
dressed the following letter to the Rev. Dr. 
M'Allum, on the interesting subject of a Wes- 
leyan mission to the Holy Land ; a measure 
which had been long contemplated, and in 
favour of which several subscriptions had been 
presented : — 

''London, Sept. IQth, 1823. 
" Dear Sir, — I write to you on a subject of 
great importance ; and one on which I trust 
you will make no attempt to say No, until you 
have asked counsel of God, and your best feel- 
ings. 

You know that a mission to Jerusalem is 
before the committee, and something must be 
done with reference to that object. It is forced 
upon us by the prayers of the pious, and the 
contributions of the generous. We have never 
put it forward to excite interest ; and yet we are 
constantly getting money with this designation. 

" Our view is, that a mission house should 
be taken, and a family settled there ; and that 
two missionaries be appointed, one married and 



LIFE OF R.JCHARL* WATSOX. 193 

the other single. Much might be done by con- 
versation, and circulating the Scriptures, &c., 
in the first place, and by public family worship. 
The rest must follow as the Lord may open the 
door. We think it likely, too, that the coun- 
tries beyond may open ; in which case the 
house at Jerusalem might become the centre 
of a distinct class of missions, and the school 
in which the labourers might be trained for 
service, or sent out from England. 

" But who will go, and head this great work, 
looking forward to Syria and Lesser Asia, and 
backward upon the Euphrates and Armenia, 
as scenes to which his labours may extend, 
though not personally, yet by commencing the 
work in Palestine, the very centre of intelli- 
gence, and by training up the agents there ? 
How noble a scene of useful labour ! And the 
sacrifices are not great. Jerusalem is healthy ; 
protection can be obtained ; the journey from 
England is short ; intercourse with friends re- 
gular ; and a trip to England every few years 
quite practicable. 

" But for such a mission we, as a body, have 
a very limited choice of men, who ought to be 
literary, and, in addition, ought, in order to 
have the best chance of favour, &c., among the 
principal men, to know medicine and surgery. 
13 



194 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 

" We lay this matter before you, in the name 
of the Lord, at least to go on an exploring ex- 
cursion, before you make up your mind fully to 
give yourself to the work. You might go, v/ith 
Mr. Cook, (from France,) or some other suitable 
person, to Jerusalem, and report ; or if you will 
at once, in the name of Him whose blessed 
footsteps trod that soil, offer yourself to make 
the attempt to settle at once in Jerusalem, and 
put the practicability of a mission there to the 
test, take your excellent wife, and we will give 
you the best brother we can find to help you. 
The time of your stay may be left with your- 
self. The Italian language might help you 
sufficiently at the first ; and modern Greek and 
Arabic may be acquired there. We have no 
other person to head such a mission, to whom 
we can look. Think, pray, and write, as soon 
as you have determined at least to make further 
inquiries. 

" The God who has never forgotten Jerusa- 
lem direct you ! There are ten thousand Jews 
resident there, and not highly prejudiced ; 
many are respectable ; there are many amiable 
daughters of Zion, with whom your wife can 
form a pleasant society ; and several Christian 
missionaries of the first order, &c., &c. I 
speak the words of truth and soberness. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



19a 



" Give my love to Mrs. M'Allum. Let hev 
remember Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus, the 
family whom Jesus loved ; and put no difficulty 
in the way of another family residing there in 
the same place, whom Jesus may also love 
and to whom he will pay many special visits 
of mercy." 

The application appears to have been with- 
out effect ; Dr. M'Allum, for some reasons with 
which we are unacquainted, declining the ser- 
vice here proposed to him. 

During the greater part of the year 1823, 
Mr. Watson was either severely aiHicted, or in 
such a state of debility as to be scarcely able to 
travel ; and his time was therefore mostly spent 
in the mission house and in his own room. His 
powerful and active mind, however, rose above 
every infirmity, and was constantly employed 
in useful study. The approbation with which 
the first part of his " Theological Institutes" 
had been received urged him to the completion 
of that work. He also wrote several valuable 
communications for the Wesleyan Magazine, 
among which was an admirable discourse, en- 
titled, " Man magnified by the Divine Regard." 
It was founded on Job vii, 17, and is one of the 
most eloquent and impressive of Mr. Watson's 
published sermons. 



196 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



Mr. Watson possessed a fine taste in sacred 
music. Of his judgment in this science, and 
especially in reference to congregational sing- 
ing, his friends were fully aware. In the latter 
part of 1823 the Methodists in Wakefield, hav- 
ing been for some time dissatisfied with the 
manner in which this part of divine worship 
was performed among them, meditated the 
erection of an organ in their chapel, and soli- 
cited his opinion and counsel on this measure. 
In answer to their inquiries, he addressed to 
one of them the following letter, from which it 
will be seen that his views respecting the use 
of instrumental music in divine worship had 
been greatly modified since the publication of 
The Book of Kane," twenty years before : — 

" London, Monday. 
"Dear Sir, — I am unable to s:iy any thing 
but what is exceedingly obvious, in the case of 
the introduction of organs into our chapels ; 
and I think the only question to be considered 
is, whether they serve or obstruct congrega- 
tional singing. On this, opinions differ; some 
affirming, and others denying as positively, that 
the congregation trusts to the organ, and list- 
ens, rather than joins in the service. As far 
as my observation goes, this does not necessa- 
rily follow. In churches wnere the congrega- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



197 



tions are irreligious, it is so ; but it ^vould be 
the same if there were only a clerk, or an 
orchestra of singers and fiddlers. In many 
churches I knovr, where the minister is evan- 
gelical, and the congregation devotional, the 
organ is scarcely heard but at the commence- 
ment of the tune, its sounds being mingled with 
the full swell of the voices of the worshippers. 

" Among ourselves, at Brunswick chapel, 
Liverpool, the congregation joins with as much 
ardour as if there were no organ, and I think 
more. This is also the case at Bath, (in both 
the chapels,) at ^largate, and at Xewark. 
These facts have fixed my opinion in favour of 
organs in large chapels, and where they are 
prudently and constitutionally introduced. The 
only exception I know is one in vrhich the tone 
of the organ is so intolerably harsh, that no 
sound in heaven or in earth can commingle 
with it. I believe, however, that even there 
the people sing ; but after all, the tones of the 
organ, like the voice of a fish woman in a mar- 
ket, keep a lofty distinction above all others. 
This exception only proves that it is of import- 
ance to have an instrument of full and melli- 
fluous tone. 

On the other hand, we shall regret the day 
when the liberty to introduce organs into our 



198 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



chapels, under certain circumstances, was 
granted, if we are to have organists also who 
seek to display their talents, and to tell a gaping 
crovvd below with what elasticity their fingers 
can vibrate, and how many graces and trills 
they can add to the composition before them ; — 
men who could not think the sun shone bright, 
unless they looked at his beams through a 
painted transparency of their ov/n ; and who 
would fancy they heightened the sublimity of 
a peal of thunder by ringing handbells during 
the storm. The attempt of some organists to 
embellish and garnish the noble compositions 
of our great masters in psalmody is disgusting 
beyond endurance. Voluntaries are equally 
objectionable for a different reason. If good, 
they are out of place ; if bad, they do not de- 
serve a place anywhere. 

" As you are good enough to attach the least 
importance to an opinion of mine, I may give 
you in few words my deliberate judgment, 
formed now for several years, and after some 
observations of the practical effect. It is, that 
organs in our large chapels are desirable. 

" 1. When they abolish formal choirs of 
singers. 

"2. When they are played by persons of 
judgment and sobriety. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



199 



" 3. When the end for which they are intro- 
duced, to assist congregational singing, is stead- 
ily maintained. 

4. When no voluntaries, interludes, &c., 
are, on any account, or at any time, permitted. 

" 5. When the tune is not first played over by 
the organ alone ; acommonbutvery silly practice. 

''6. When nothing is done rashly, or in the 
spirit of party ; for many of the best men have the 
strongest prejudices against the instrument." 

Mr. Watson had a high sense of the solem , 
nity and decorum with which the public wor- 
ship of God ought always to be conducted. 
Of choirs of singers he deliberately , and on prin- 
ciple, disapproved ; and he was of opinion that 
they had greatly injured the psalmody and de- 
votion of the Methodist congregations. In 
large chapels he had no objection to an organ, 
if properly managed ; but as a general thing he 
preferred that musical instruments should be 
dispensed with, and the congregations left to 
the guidance of a pious and judicious leading 
singer. " Our people," he would sometimes 
say, " are a devotional people : they love 
psalmody ; and were they not hindered by the 
trifling of the choir, they would produce the 
finest congregational singing in the world." 



200 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



The following observations on the subject of 
congregational singing, which are extracted from 
a preface written by Mr. Watson for a revised 
edition of Mr. Wesley's " Sacred Harmony," 
maybe appropriately introduced in this place : — ■ 

" In the best ages of the church, and by the 
judgment of the most eminent and pious of its 
ministers, simplicity has been thought the most 
appropriate character of sacred music ; and every 
thing intricate and light, injurious to the genuine 
spirit of devotion. In this opinion Mr. Wesley 
cordially concurred, and strenuously opposed 
light and intricate performances. In his Jour- 
nal he remarks, ' April 8, 1781, I came just in 
time to W arrington to put a stop to a bad cus- 
tom which was creeping in here. A few men, 
who had fine voices, sang a psalm which no 
one knew, in a tune fit for an opera, wherein 
three, four, or five persons sung different words 
at the same time ! What an insult upon com- 
mon sense ! What a burlesque upon public 
worship ! No custom can excuse such a mix- 
ture of profaneness and absurdity.' Many simi- 
lar observations on abuses in singing may be 
found in his works : and it is a circumstance 
of greater importance than will appear to super- 
ficial minds, that as we have, through the spe- 
cial goodness of God to us, a collection of the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



201 



best hymns, we have also been frequently and 
seriously admonished to sing them so as to 
render them helpful to our piety, by ' making 
melody in our hearts to the Lord.' 

" By the rules which are supplied by the 
practice of the church of Christ when most in- 
fluenced by the life and power of religion, and 
the opinions of her most eminent ministers, on 
the right performance of this sacred service, 
all new tunes ought to be tried, and admitted or 
rejected by those to whom God has given the 
charge of his courts ; and who are responsible 
both to him and the public for the manner in 
which public psalmody is conducted. ' Psalm- 
tunes,' says an eminent divine, ' ought to be 
solemn and grave ; not vain, light, and airy, as 
if they were only designed to please and gra- 
tify a wanton and sensual mind. This would 
be to turn one of the most noble and spiritual 
duties of religion into a mere entertainment for 
the senses and fancies of carnal men, — to turn 
God's house into a theatre ; and vv^ould dese- 
crate his sacred worship, and make it distaste- 
ful to pious minds. The power of music is 
very great, and maybe abused to bad purposes, 
as v/ell as improved to holy ones ; and there- 
fore only such tunes must be used in God's 
house as become his majesty and holiness, and 



202 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 

the gravity and spiritiaality of the worship in 
which we are engaged.' 

" Let nothing, however, w4iich has been said 
be construed into an intention to discourage 
the cuUivation and improvement of this part of 
divine worship, both in families and in congre- 
gations. On the contrary, it is a religious or- 
dinance of so high an antiquity, one which has 
been so signally owned of God for comforting 
and edifying his church, and for alluring even 
those ' who are without' to her services, that too 
great care cannot be taken to render it attract- 
ive, so that our ' praise be comely^ and devotional. 
As a holy means to great and noble ends, sci- 
ence is sacredly employed in giving it as much 
perfection as possible ; for unless singing be so 
ordered as, in some measure, to be grateful to 
the ear, the ordinance will be exposed to con- 
tempt. ' God is the God of order, and not of 
confusion.' Simplicity excludes not genius, 
but is the effect of it ; and those modulations 
which form the best examples of psalmody are 
all the productions of eminent genius, under the 
guidance of a proper sense of what is fit and 
becoming in the worship of God. Such must 
have been the airs in which the primitive Chris- 
tians celebrated the praises of Christ ; for pa- 
gans were attracted by their singing to their 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



203 



churclies, and were often deeply and effectually 
wrought upon by the service. Nothing but the 
productions of real genius could have called 
forth those emotions which rendered psalmody 
so popular a service among the adherents of 
the Reformation, and so attractive to papists 
themselves, that the singing of psalms was pro- 
hibited throughout France by a royal declara- 
tion. And vv^e have all v/itnessed the effects 
produced on whole congregations, when all 
have joined in a well-adapted tune, and espe< 
cially Luther's Old Hundredth Psalm Tune, to 
sing the high praises of our God. 

" Neither genius in composition, nor skill in 
execution, are therefore discouraged by the re- 
commendation of simplicity in singing. This 
is a common mistake. It is in complex airs 
that genius is usually most absent : and in a 
rattling and noisy execution, that skill in exe- 
cution is least employed. 

" Delightful as this service is, it has its cor- 
responding dangers. The very means we take 
to engage our hearts v\-ith ardour to * give thanks 
unto God,' may, by their appeal to our senses, 
steal away our attention, and leave our worship 
a ' sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.' 

" On the contrary, we know, that if rightly 
performed, nothing is m.ore acceptable to God 



204 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



our Saviour. Wonderful, indeed, is his conde- 
scension, that when the ' sons of the morning' 
still sing together, and surround his throne with 
hallelujahs, he should say to a child of earth, 
* Let me hear thy voice, for it is pleasant i' 
' Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me.' " 

In the beginning of 1824 Mr. Watson pub- 
lished the second part of his " Theological In- 
stitutes and, shortly afterward, " A Cate- 
chism of the Evidences of Christianity, and the 
Truth of the Holy Scriptures." He had pre- 
viously compiled two catechisms of Christian 
doctrine, and Scripture history ; one for the 
use of children of tender years, and the other 
for children of seven years of age and upv/ard. 
These catechisms, which were designed for 
Sunday schools and private families, were pre- 
pared under the direction of the conference, 
and having been examined and approved by a 
committee appointed for that purpose, were 
published as the authorized catechisms of the 
Wesleyan Methodist body. They have been 
very extensively used both in England and 
America ; and in the former country have been 
made use of in some institutions with which 
the Methodists have no connection. 

The question of negro emancipation had now 
for some time been warmly agitated, in the 



LIFE OF RICHARD \VATSOX. 



205 



House of Commons and throughout the country. 
This caused a great excitement in the West In- 
dies, and the planters either believing or affecting 
to believe that the missionaries were the agents 
of the abolitionists in England, assumed an atti- 
tude of determined hostility to them ; and in Bar- 
badoes went so far as to raise a mob, who demo- 
lished the Wesleyan missionary chapel and 
dwelling house, and drove the missionary 
from the island. In this state of affairs, Mr. 
Watson, who had a thorough knowledge of 
West India society, and perfectly understood 
the nature and bearing of the mission to the 
negro slaves, was requested by the missionary 
committee to preach one of the annual sermons 
before the society, at the anniversary for 1S24; 
and to confine his attention to the missions in 
the West Indies. He accordingly delivered a 
discourse in the City-Road chapel, from 1 Peter 
ii, 17, — -'Honour all men;'' enjoining upon 
Christians the duty of honouring human nature 
in all its forms. The sermon was delivered 
with fluency and pov/er ; and was heard v\dth 
the most profound and breathless attention by 
a large and highly respectable congregation. 
It occupied nearly two hours in the delivery ; 
and a member of the senate, who was present, 
said, when returning from the servicCj " The 



206 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

sermon was the greatest display of intellectual 
strength in a public speaker I ever heard. I 
have perhaps sometimes witnessed an equal 
degree of power for a short period ; but an ex- 
temporary address, of two hours' length, deliv- 
ered with such unabated energy of thought and 
feeling, never before came under my observa- 
tion." The sermon was soon afterward pub- 
lished under the title of, " The Religious In- 
struction of the Slaves in the West India Colo- 
nies advocated and defended." It is the most 
elaborate of all Mr. Watson's printed discourses, 
and is, without exception, one of the noblest 
compositions of the kind in the English lan- 
guage. There are passages in it w^hich, for 
sublimity of thought, richness of illustration, 
and strength and beauty of expression, would 
not suffer from a comparison with the most ad- 
mired productions of the best prose writers ; 
but its great excellence consists in the pure 
and elevated principles which it maintains, and 
the spirit of Christian benevolence and justice 
Avith which it is so thoroughly imbued. It pass- 
ed through several editions ; and a gentleman, 
who was unknown to Mr. Watson, offered to 
print a fine edition at his own expense, to be 
circulated among the members of parliament. 
In the early part of the summer of this year 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



207 



Mr. Watson visited Oxford, and spent some 
days in that interesting city and its neighbour- 
hood, where the friends w^ere highly gratified 
with his spirit and conversation. Before his 
return to London he went v\dth a party of friends 
to Nuneham, the seat of Lord Harcourt, to re- 
fresh his spirits by a change of air and scene- 
ry, and to survey those beauties of art and 
nature of which, through life, he was a passion- 
ate admirer. One of the party was a medical 
gentleman, of considerable experience and skill. 
In conversation with this gentleman, Mr. 
Watson, in a manner perfectly frank and un- 
constrained, observed, " I kiiow^ not Vv'hat change 
is taking place in my constitution ; but I am 
apprehensive that disease, in a somewhat new 
form, is beginning to develop itself. I believe 
that I am not naturally an ill-tempered 
man ; at least my friends have not been in the 
habit of charging me with ill-nature ; but of 
late I have found myself snappish, without be- 
ing able to assign any particular reason for it. 
There is also another symptom which leads me 
to form this opinion concerning myself. Up to 
a late period my spirit has been sanguine and 
cheerful : my horizon has been generally bright 
and distinct ; but latterly I have caught myself 
gloomy and beclouded, and yet I could not tell 



208 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

why." The medical gentleman stated his per- 
suasion to be that Mr. Watson's liver was seri- 
ously diseased ; but expressed a hope that by 
prudent management his life might be prolong- 
ed, and his services to the church continued 
for many years ; and he engaged, before Mr. 
V/ atson left Oxford, to give him some written 
directions in regard to diet and medigine. 

A more interesting companion than Mr. Wat- 
son, especially in a place like Nuneham, it is 
scarcely possible to conceive. He generally 
carried with him a small magnifying glass for 
the examination of minute objects, and particu- 
larly of flowers, and a lancet with which he 
was accustomed to dissect them. Several young- 
persons were of the party on this occasion ; 
and it appeared to be an object with him to 
render himself as agreeable and instructive as 
possible. His spirit was unusually bland and 
kind ; and he directed their attention to endless 
scenes of wonder in the creation, accompanied 
by devout and hallowed references to the great 
Architect, who had surrounded them with such 
striking displays of his wisdom, power, and love. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



209 



CHAPTER X. 

Conference of 1824 — Mr. Newstead's notice of the journey to 
Leeds — Missionary Report for 1524 — Rev, W. Dochvell — Confer- 
ence of 1825 — Singular impression — Publication of the third part 
of the Institutes— Mr. Watson's dihgence — Mosiionarjr Report for 
1825 — Loss of missionaries by shipwreck i;i ^-.o- "West Indies — 
Death of Mr. Buttenvorth — Conference of 152o — Mr. W^atson 
elected President — Closing exercises of the Conference — Pubh- 
cation of the fourth part of the Institutes — ?>IissionaTy Report for 
1S26 — Mr. \Vatson visits Scotland and Ireland — Conference o^ 
1827 — Mr. Watson stationed at Manchester. 

The conference of 1824 was held at Leeds. 
Mr. Watson was accompanied in his journey 
thither by the Rev. Robert Newstead, who 
says, " One of the most delightful journeys I 
ever took was in company with jrlr. Watson 
to Leeds, in 1824. We were to take the North- 
ampton and Nottingham missionary meetings in 
our way. The weather was charming and 
gave a fine elevation to the spirits. Our con- 
versation turned principally on the work of mis- 
sions, and the subject of preaching ; and during 
a considerable part of one stage, over a lovely 
country, he was engaged in giving me a beau- 
tiful outline of a discourse on 1 John iii, 1, 3. 
It appeared to be quite nev/ to his contempla- 
tion ; for he introduced it by saying, ' What 
should we say in illustration of a passage like 
14 



210 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

this V or words to tliat effect ; and beautifully 
indeed did it illustrate the power of his creative 
imagination. I remember that among other 
fine thoughts suggested to him on that portion 
of the passage, ' It doth 7iot yet appear what we 
shall he^ he said, ' You do not, for instance, 
see what shall be in the yet undeveloped 
powers of an intellectual human being, from 
some sparks of intellect which might appear in 
early life. It did not appear what Mihon, or 
Newton, or Locke would be while yet they 
were in infancy. We,' he added, * can see all 
this beautiful landscape which is around us, 
more immediately ; but it doth not yet appear 
what is beyond us in the distance. We may 
infer that it is a continuation of the same beau- 
tiful scenery ; but it is as yet hidden in the 
haze of the distant obscurity : it doth not yet 
appear. So when the sun,' he continued, 
* arises in the morning, but a faint conception 
could be formed from the first streaks upon the 
clouds, what should be the flood of glory which 
he would pour upon the world by his full meri- 
dian beams.' And thus delightfully would he 
pour forth instruction to those with whom he 
conversed. It was impossible to be in his 
company long and not be instructed as well as 
delighted." 



LIFE OF RICHARD \VATSOX. 



211 



Mr. Watson's health during the session of 
the conference was tolerably good, and he ven- 
tured one Sunday evening to preach to a large 
congregation in the open air : but soon after his 
return to London he was laid aside for two 
weeks by a severe bilious attack. 

The state of the Wesleyan missions, as de- 
tailed by Mr. Watson in the report of 1824, 
was highly encouraging. " During the past 
year," he observes, " God has continued to 
crown the labours of the brethren abroad, and 
by their instrumentality has extended the king- 
dom of his Son into regions, and among tribes, 
where Christ was never named." In the 
course of the year tvrenty-one missionaries 
had been sent out ; and the contributions to 
the society had amounted to SI 80,720 In ad- 
dition to this handsome sum the society had 
received a munificent benefaction of $47,500 
from the Rev. W. Dodwell, vicar of Welby, an 
excellent clergyman of the Established Church, 
under whose faithful ministry Mr. Watson had 
received great benefit in early life. (See page 
20.) He was a personal friend of Mr. Wes- 
ley and of Dr. Coke, and had long been a 
liberal supporter of the Wesleyan missions. 
Whenever the anniversaries of missionary so- 
cieties were held in the neighbourhood of Wei- 



212 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



by, the free-will offerings of this devout man 
w^ere generally presented, and gratefully re- 
ceived. 

In the spring of 1825 jNIr. Watson made a 
tour in the north, and attended the missionary 
meetings at Liverpool, ^Manchester, and some 
other places ; and wherever he went, though 
his emaciated appearance excited sympathy 
and concern, his sermons and speeches were 
heard with unabated delight and profit. The 
" outw^ard man" appeared to be sinking into 
decay, but the strength of " the inner man" 
was undiminished, and his imagination still 
retained all its freshness and vigour. If there 
were any alteration in his public ministrations, 
it was that they Vv'ere more spiritual ; and his 
whole manner was increasingly devout. The 
long and severe affliction to which he had 
been subject had somewhat chastened his na- 
tural flow of spirits, and rendered him more 
grave and sober ; but his mental powers were, 
if possible, invigorated ; and his prayerful 
habits had secured to him, by God's blessing, 
a sanctified use of his protracted sufferings. 

The conference of this year w^as held at 
Bristol, and as 'Mw Watson's health was too 
feeble to allow him to travel from London to 
Bristol in one journey, he requested Mr. Jack- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



213 



son to accompany him, and spend a night at 
Marlborough on the way. The subject is 
here mentioned because of a curious incident 
which Mr. Watson related on the occasion. 
" We arrived," says Mr. Jackson, " at IMarl- 
borough in the afternoon, and after dining at 
the inn, walked out to see that ancient town, 
and very interesting neighbourhood. In pass- 
ing by the church-yard ^Ir. Watson pointed to 
a grave-stone, in a conspicuous situation, and 
said, ' The first time I travelled this way, that 
grave-stone caught my eye ; and especially the 

v/ords. Who died aged forty -two. A very 

deep impression, for which I could not ac- 
count, was immediately made on my mind, 
that I should die precisely at the same age. 
The impression was both strong and sudden. 
I have already passed beyond that period ; and 
this shows how little stress can be justly laid 
upon those sudden im.pulses and impressions 
of which some people make so much account.' 
This impression, it appears, had created con- 
siderable uneasiness in the family of Mr. Wat- 
son ; but its precise effect upon his own mind 
it is not easy to determine." 

x\fter the close of the conference, Mr. Wat- 
son, before his return to London, spent a few 
weeks at Cheltenham, in the hope of receiving 



214 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

some improvement in his health ; but in this, 
as well as in every similar case, the relief 
which he obtained was only temporary. The 
disease under which he laboured was unsub- 
dued. A medical gentleman, whom he con- 
sulted there, promised to complete a cure ; 
but Mr. Watson's hopes were not sanguine. 

During the fall of this year he published the 
third part of his " Theological Institutes." The 
former parts had met with a rapid sale ; and as 
the work proceeded the subscribers became 
increasingly sensible of its value and import- 
ance. He did not, however, devote his exclu- 
sive attention to this work, but continued, not- 
withstanding his physical debility, to attend to 
the duties of his office as missionary secretary. 
He carefully redeemed the time, as though 
conscious of the brief space allotted to him. 
" When at home," says Mr. Newstead, " I 
have known him often, after returning from the 
sometimes very laborious occupations of the 
mission house, immediately after dinner go up 
into his study, and at the next meal bring 
down several sheets of his ' Institutes,' or of 
some other work he had in hand, composed 
and written in the interval, correcting and 
amendinor them as he sat at meat. His orreat 

o o 

powers of abstraction enabled him to go undis- 



LIPE OF RICHARD "WATSOX. 



215 



turbedly on with the most important work, 
while others were conversing around him on 
ordinary topics ; yet, if at any time a theme 
was touched which interested him, he would 
immediately observe upon it, and then resume 
his work. He generally read at meals, as if 
parsimonious of every hour and moment, and 
would be CTatherin^ in various information, or 
reviewing a book, or drinking deeper into 
sound theological knowledge, while others 
were only doing the every-day work of life. 
He was, indeed, a fine example of the most 
indefatigable industry, in redeeming time to 
the most useful purposes." 

In the early part of 1826 'Mr. \Vatson pub- 
lished the Annual Report of the Methodist 
Missionary Society" for the year 1825, which 
presented a most gratifying view of the spirit 
of holy zeal at home, and of the progress of 
the work of God abroad. We give the con- 
cluding passage of this interesting document : 
Dark and wretched as the world still is, the 
kingdom of Christ is visibly enlarging, by his 
blessings upon human exertions. The seed, 
in every place, yields its produce to the hands 
of the reapers, and provides, by its increase, 
for a sowing more copious, and a harvest more 
abundant. Wherever we turn, our work en- 



216 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

larges before us, — the blessed work of declar- 
ing the glory and salvation of our Redeemer. 
Success calls for renewed exertion ; and every 
labourer sent forth, pressed by the very ripe- 
ness and richness of the field, beckons others 
to follow him. A state of things exists, which 
a very few years ago no one could have anti- 
cipated ; so that, far from finding it difficult to 
bestow useful exertion, we are not able, in 
fact, to overtake the work to which we are 
invited. In our own missions alone, * Come 
over and help us,' is the voice from almost 
every quarter. After all that has been done, 
there are willing hearers, even in heathen 
countries, without a preacher ; numbers of 
children anxious to be taught, but without 
schools ; and even Christian societies, now but 
occasionally visited, asking for constant care 
and superintendence ; missionaries failing in 
their strength, from excessive labours, beseech- 
ing us not to be lightened of their portion of 
this sacred toil, but to be supplied with coad- 
jutors, by whose aid they may proceed to the 
help of the destitute souls around them. The 
vineyard of the Lord lies before his labourers ; 
and we are thus called, by the force of prin- 
ciple, by the glow of feeling, by the power of 
pity, by the ardour of hope, by the sublime 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 2] 7 

scenes and prospects which the mighty opera- 
tions of Providence among the nations of the 
earth now spread aromid us, by our loyaUy, 
and by our love to Christ, to be • steadfast, 
unmoveable, always abounding in the v/ork of 
the Lord ;' and the more so, as we know that 
our labour is not in vain in the Lord." 

The income of the society during the year 
had amounted to $217,388, being an increase 
of nearly $37,000 over that of the preceding 
year. 

The anniversary of the society in 1826 was 
a season of unusual solemnity. The joyous 
feelings excited by the great and growing 
prosperity of the missions were restrained and 
chastened by the melancholy intelligence which 
had been recently received from the "West 
Indies. Five missionaries, most of v^diom 
had their wives and families with them, had 
taken their passage in the packet-boat from 
St. Kitts, where they had been attending the 
district meeting, to return to their several fields 
of labour. The vessel was wrecked at sea, 
and of the whole party, v\'hich consisted of 
the five missionaries, three of their wives, four 
children, and two servants, ]vlrs. Jones, vrife of 
one of the missionaries, v>~as the only person 
who escaped. The suflerers were all con- 



218 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



nected with the Antigua station, which by this 
solemn and mysterious dispensation of Provi- 
dence was deprived of all its missionaries 
" So heavy a stroke," says Mr. Watson, in 
reporting this calamity, " has not been sus- 
tained by any modern mission ; and the com,- 
mittee can only how in silence before the Lord 
of the whole earth, and mingle their own 
commiserations with those of the friends 
of the deceased, and of the afflicted so- 
cieties by whom they were so greatly be- 
loved, and among whom they had so success- 
fully laboured. 

Not long after this the Missionary Society 
was called to sustain another severe loss, in 
the death of Joseph Butterworth, Esq., a man 
of exemplary zeal and benevolence, who had 
long taken an active part in the management 
of its affairs.* He was the general treasurer 
of the society ; and frequently, when its funds 
were embarrassed, made large advances of 
money without interest. Mr. Watson, at the 
request of the family, preached a funeral dis- 
course on the occasion of his death, taking 
for his text Gal. i, 24, ^'And tliey glorified God 

* He was a son of the Rev. John Butterworth, a Baptist 
minister, and author of the concordance which goes by 
his name ; and brother-in-law to Dr. Adam Clarke. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



219 



in meP This sermon was afterward pub- 
lished. 

The conference of 1826 was held in Liver- 
pool, and immediately on its assembling, the 
preachers conferred on Mr. Watson the high- 
est mark of their confidence and esteem. 
^' This morning," says he, in writing to his 
wife, "the honour I sought not w^as laid upon 
me, — that of president. May I have grace to 
discharge its duties to the satisfaction of the 
brethren." Through the whole session his 
official conduct presented a remarkable admix- 
ture of Christian dignity and brotherly kind- 
ness. In one instance it was his painful duty 
to administer censure ; and the impression pro- 
duced by his remarks upon the aggravations 
and consequences of sin in a minister of the 
gospel, will not soon be effaced from the minds 
of those who witnessed the scene. 

The commencement and conclusion of every 
conference are usually seasons of peculiar so- 
lemnity. When the preachers meet after an 
interval of twelve months, the places of some 
beloved and venerated men, who had long 
been recognized in those annual assemblies, 
are generally found to be empty. The ravages 
which have been made by death often awaken 
the most serious and tender emotions ; and 



220 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



the startling inquiry comes with power to 
many a heart, 

Who next shall be summon'd away, 
My merciful God, is it I ?" 

When the last vote of the conference has been 
passed, and the journal is signed by the presi- 
dent and secretary, the preachers, the great 
body of whom are perfectly one in affection and 
judgment, prepare to separate, in the certain 
anticipation of never all meeting again till they 
appear before the Judge of quick and dead. 
After receiving the Lord's supper together, 
and commending each other to God in earnest 
prayer, they depart to their several scenes of 
labour, often with tears, and always v\dth mu- 
tual benedictions, and in the earnest hope of 
meeting in a world where 

"Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown." 

At the conclusion of the conference in 
Liverpool Mr. Watson prayed v/ith great en- 
largement and fervour, and at considerable 
length. He prayed for the preservation of the 
preachers in their several journeyings ; for the 
continuance of their health and lives ; the suc- 
cess of their ministry through the year ; the 
general prosperity of the work of God ; the 
peace and harmony of the societies ; ar^d the 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



221 



conversion to the faith of Christ of " a great 
multitude" of people in all parts of the land. 
The missionaries, " separated from their bre- 
thren," and labouring in different parts of the 
heathen world, and in the midst of great dis- 
couragements and trials, were particularly re- 
membered, and commended to the blessing and 
merciful protection of God. There was one 
subject in this prayer which seemed to rest 
with peculiar v/eight upon Mr. Watson's mind, 
and to which he gave considerable promi- 
nence. It was the case of the preachers who 
at that time became supernumeraries. Several 
aged men, who had long borne the burden and 
heat of the day, and been accustomed to active 
service in various parts of the connection, 
were compelled by infirmities to retire from 
the labours of their itinerant ministry. With 
these venerable servants of Christ he appeared 
deeply to sympathize. Their circumstances 
were now greatly altered, and they were liable 
to strong and distressing temptations. In some 
instances they were likely to be straitened in 
their income, and micans of subsistence ; and 
in every case, to retire into comparative ob- 
scurity. They would, therefore, be in danger 
of considering themselves slighted, and of 
yielding to a querulous disposition. From this 



222 



LIFE OF RICHARD 



WATSON. 



he prayed that they might be preserved ; that 
the evening of life with them might be cahn 
and tranquil ; their usefulness continued ; and 
that their lives of pious and honourable toil 
might be crov/ned with a peaceful end, and 
a glorious reward. The deep feeling which 
he manifested in this part of his prayer was 
admirably characteristic of the affection and 
respect with which he was accustomed to re- 
gard aged Christians, and especially aged 
ministers. 

During the year of his presidency Mr. Wat- 
son still retained his connection with the Mis- 
sionary Societ}', although the duties of the 
secretaryship ostensibly devolved upon other 
men.* In the month of October he repaired 
to Leeds, to assist at the anniversary of the 
auxiliary society of that district. His sermons 
and speeches produced their usu?J impression, 
though his health had again begun to fail, and 
he was in a very languid state. He bore the 
journey pretty well ; but preaching on Sunday, 
and both preaching and speaking on Monday, 
in a large chapel j quite laid him up, and he 
was confined to the house during the two fol- 
lowing days. His friends advised him to rest 

* The resident secretaries for this year were the Rev, 
Messrs. Morley, Mason, and Newstead 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATiSOX. 



223 



for some days longer ; but he liad engaged to 
preach at the dedication of a new chapel at 
Salford, and he was unwilling to disappoint his 
friends in that place. He accordingly went, 
and fulfilled his eno^ao-ement in the best man- 
ner he w^as able ; but there his strength again 
failed, so that he v>"as unable, for some time, to 
bear the journey home to London. 

Under all his bodily infirmities his mind 
retained all its actiA'ity and vigour. At the 
end of this year he published the fourth part 
of the " Institutes ;" and in the early part of the 
following year the Annual Report of the Mis- 
sionary Society for 1826. There had been a 
small decrease in the funds of the society 
during the year, in consequence of the deep 
commercial distress in which the country was 
then plunged ; but in other respects the details 
of the Report were calculated to call forth ex- 
pressions of gratitude, and to inspire the most 
animating hopes. 

The following statements from this Report 
wdll give some idea of the extent of the socie- 
ty's operations at that time. The number of 
mission stations was 137; and the number of 
missionaries, exclusive of catechists, 180. The 
number of members in the foreign societies w^as 
32,960, of whom 26,283 were negroes and 



224 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



coloured persons in the West Indies. There 
were also upward of 11,000 children taught in 
schools connected with the mission stations in 
various parts of the world. 

In the summer of 1827, Mr. Watson, ac- 
companied by Mr. Bunting, visited Edinburgh, 
as directed by the conference, to meet the 
preachers stationed in Scotland. During his 
stay the anniversary of the auxiliary mission- 
ary society was held, and he lent his assist- 
ance on the occasion by preaching before the 
society, and delivering an address at the public 
meeting. Having finished his business in 
Scotland he returned to London, and from 
thence repaired to Cornwall, having been 
called upon to assist, in his official capacity, 
in the adjustment of some differences in one of 
the circuits. From Cornwall he sailed to Ire- 
land, to preside at the Irish conference, which 
was held at Belfast. Here his ministry, his 
counsel, his conversation, and his entire spirit and 
example, were greatly admired by the preachers 
and friends, and were made a lasting blessing 
to many. He was often requested to visit 
Ireland again, but was prevented by ill health. 

From Belfast he proceeded to Manchester, 
to attend the English conference. He had 
hoped to be able to visit his family before 



LIFE OF RICHARD VrATSOX. 



225 



meeting of conference, but time did not per- 
mit. "Writing to 'Mrs. Watson, on his arrival 
at Manchester, he says, Upon the -whole I 
liked the trip to Ireland A'ery mucli : but ^vas 
glad enough to see the shores of England 
rising in the horizon. The pleasure would 
have been heightened had I been able to pro- 
ceed direct home, instead of remaining here a 
month longer ; but I must submit. There is 
much to be thankful for — preservation in tra- 
vel, and a tolerable degree of health." ]vlr. 
W'^atson's creneral health at this time, thoug-h 
delicate, was better than it had been for some 
time previously. 

Having presided in the preparatory commit- 
tees, Mr. W^atson, on the first day of confer- 
ence resigned his office as president, in which 
he w^as succeeded by the Rev. John Stephens. 
As the ex-president, it fell to his lot to deliver 
the charge to the preachers who w^ere that 
year received into full connection. He took 
for his text 2 Tim. i, 7, Fo7' God hath not 
given us the spirit of fear ; hut of power, and 
of love, and of a sound 7mnd and the dis- 
course which he delivered was every way 
worthy of himself and of the occasion. It was 
listened to, by an immense congregation, wdth 
deep and earnest attention, and its publication 
15 



226 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



was requested by the ima.niinous vote of the 
conference. 

Mr. Watson had now been one of the resi- 
dent missionary secretaries for six years, be- 
yond which period the rules of the connection 
did not allow him to continue in that office ; 
and as his health, though delicate, was now 
better than it had been for some time pre- 
viously, he was himself anxious to resume the 
regular duties of the ministry, which he regarded 
as his proper calling. As might have been ex- 
pected, the brethren in many places were anxious 
to have him stationed among them ; but the prin- 
cipal contest for his appointment was between 
the Birmingham circuit and that of Manchester 
South. After the claims of both these places 
had been duly weighed in the conference, it 
was determined that he should be sent to the 
latter place. He v/as succeeded in the office of 
missionary secretary by the Rev. Dr. Townley. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX 



227 



CHAPTER XL 

Mr. Watson enters on his ministn.- at Manchester — Connection 
with the ?tIissionary Society — His character as a preacher and 
a pastor — Compietion of his Theological Institutes — Presents the 
copyright to the Connection — Appointed Superintendent of the 
City-Road circuit, London — Publishes his ConTersations for the 
Young — Rev. Samuel Entwisle — Wesleyan University at Mid- 
dletown — Publication of his Life of Wesley — Theological and 
Biblical Dictionary — Appearance of the cholera in Engand — 
Watch-night — Letter to Mr. Edmondson— :\Iissionar\^ Report for 
lS3i — Commences an Exposition of the New Testament— Con- 
ference of 1832 — Mr. Watson's disinterestecijiess — Reappointed 
Missionary Secretary- — Dr. A. Clarke — Mr. Watson's Farewell 
Service at the City-Road chapel. 

Mr. Watson had now resided in London 
for eleven years, during which period he had 
formed many cordial attachments ; his removal, 
therefore, awakened painful feelings in many 
minds as well as his own. At his departure 
some of his friends went to meet him at the 
h(gtel in Islington, where he and his family 
were waiting for the coach. When he saw 
them his philosophy quite forsook him ; the 
tear glistened in his eye, his voice fahered, 
he could only utter the words, I did not 
expect this mark of kindness ;" and then turned 
aside to relieve his feelings by weeping. 

He arrived safely at Manchester, and opened 
his commission on the following Sunday morn- 



228 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



ing, by a discourse on Acts x, 29, " Therefore 
came I unto you without gainsaying^ as soon as 
I loas sent for : I ask therefore for what intent 
ye have sent for meP His colleagues were 
the Rev. Messrs. John Hannah, Peter M'Owan, 
and William M. Bunting, with whom he la- 
boured in happy unity and affection. By the 
congregations throughout the circuit he was 
received with every mark of satisfaction, and 
his preaching was made a lasting blessing to 
many. 

In resuming the duties of the itinerant min- 
istry Mr. Watson did not wholly sever his 
connection with the Missionary Society ; his 
name now stood on the Mimites as "honorary 
secretary" to that institution; and he kept up 
a regular correspondence with its managers, 
and occasionally drew up official documents at 
their request. He also continued to labour on 
his " Theological Institutes," of which, during 
his residence in Manchester, he wrote a consi- 
derable part of the last volume. 

These engagements, however, did not inter- 
fere v/ith his attention to his duties as the 
superintendent of a circuit, in which he was 
diligent and exemplary. Though some of the 
country congregations were small, he never 
employed a substitute when his health allowed 



LIFE OF RICHARD V.'ATSON. 



229 



iiim to attend to his own appointment.* The 
sermons which he preached in ^lanchester on 
the week-dav eveninors, as vv'ell as on Sundays, 
were thoroughly digested, rich in eyangelical 
sentiment, and generally delivered with such 
holy fervour and energy as showed that they 
had been prepared with much prayer. 

In those more private means of grace v\'hich 
are peculiar to the ]\Iethodist body, he shone 
with equal lustre as in the pulpit. In these 
he appeared not only as the gifted minister, 
but also as the devout Christian. In the re- 
gular quarterly visitations of the classes he 
endeavoured to ascertain the true spiritual 
state of each member ; and Vs^ith all fidelity he 

* Those innovations in Methodism, called stations, are 
unknown among our British brethren. There the large 
towns and cities are only the heads of circuits, embracing 
the neighbouring villages, which are supplied with preach- 
ing partly by the travelling, and partly by the local 
preachers. In this vs-ay the stronger societies are made 
to assist in bearing the burden of the weaker ones ; the 
gospel is statedly preached in places which under the 
station system would be whoUy deprived of it ; and the 
j conference preachers, making their regular rounds through 
the circuits, exercise, in the strict and Methodistic sense 
of the word, an itinerant ministry. There is no tendency 
toward Cmigregationalism among the British Wesleyan 
Methodists. 

I 



230 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



gave to each his portion of admonition coun- 
sel, or encouragement. He related his Chris- 
tian experience with a simplicity and humility 
seldom equalled ; and he approached the foot- 
stool of the Almighty, when pouring out his 
soul in prayer, with extraordinary fervency 
and devotion. Indeed he possessed the gift 
and spirit of prayer in a degree of richness 
and constancy rarely to be met with. " He 
seemed," as one of his colleagues, the Rev. 
Dr. Hannah, well observes, " to possess an 
inexhaustible fund of sentiments and expres- 
sions adapted to every variety of wants, of 
suffering, and of blessing. A special unction 
often attended his prayers. His hearers were 
bowed and raised; bowed under an overwhelm- 
ing apprehension of the insignificancy of the 
creature, and the majesty of the almighty Cre- 
ator ; and raised to a solemn, yet delightful 
contemplation of the glory which covered the 
mercy-seat with healing light, and filled the 
heart with comfort inexpressible." 

He was not only punctual in attending to 
his public engagements, but was also diligent 
in visiting the objects of his pastoral charge 
from house to house, paying special attention 
to children, and to the younger branches of 
religious families. He generally contrived to 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



231 



spend one or two hours every day in the 
visitation of the sick. This branch of pasto- 
ral duty he discharged in the most faithful 
and affectionate nranner. He spent sufficient 
time in his visits to enter calmly into conver- 
sation with the afflicted, endeavouring to gain 
their confidence, and to acquire a knowledge 
of their spiritual state, that he might give suit- 
able consolation and advice, and unite with 
them in appropriate acts of confession, suppli- 
cation, and thanksgiving. To those who Vv-ere 
in distress he was particularly kind and sooth- 
ing, opening to their views the promises of 
God, the perfect atonement of Christ, and the 
fulness of the divine mercy ; encouraging them 
to place an absolute reliance upon the divine 
faithfulness and love, and offering up prayers 
in their behalf, till they were enabled to re- 
joice in the favour of God, and in hope of 
future glory. 

He attached just importance to the meetings 
of the different committees appointed to ma- 
nage the affairs of Sunday schools and mis- 
sionary and tract societies ; and that he and 
his brethren might have an opportunity of 
attending them, he reserved one night in the 
week free from preaching engagements. 

Before he left Manchester, where he re- 



232 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

mained two years, he published the two con 
eluding parts of the " Theological Institutes." 
The completion of this work was to Mr. Wat- 
son an occasion of no little satisfaction and 
gratitude ; it having cost him much labour and 
thought, and occupied his anxious attention for 
several years. His design in writing it was, 
to assist the junior preachers in their theolo- 
gical studies ; and its publication supplied 
what had long been a desideratum in Method- 
ism — a complete course of systematic theo- 
logy founded on those views of Scripture which 
Mr. Wesley had embraced, and by preaching 
which he had been the instrument of, perhaps, 
the most important revival of religion since the 
days of the apostles. 

Of this work it is altogether unnecessary 
that we give any particular account. It has 
now for many years been so well known, and 
justly admired, that both description and com- 
mendation are alike uncalled for ; and we will 
only add the public estimate of Mr. Watson's 
mental vigour and theological attainments, 
high as it is, would be considerably increased, 
were it generally known that this, his great 
work, was written during intervals of time 
snatched from his other engagements and du- 
ties, and much of it while he was suffering 



LIFE OF RICHARD \\'AT«OX. 



233 



under severe bodily affliction, and in a state of 
extreme languor and exhaustion. 

It had from the beginning been !\Ir. Wat- 
son's intention to present the copyright of this 
work to the AVesleyan connection ; and the 
manner in which he did it displayed a deli- 
cacy and honour which are worthy of special 
record. When he first committed the work to 
the press, though his friends were sanguine as 
to its execution and sale, he had doubts con- 
cerning both ; and hence, though money with 
him was not plentiful, and the details of busi- 
ness were foreign from bis habits, he took upon 
himself the entire risk of publication, and 
offered the copyright to the connection when 
it had received the stamp of public approba- 
tion, and when the demand for it vras such as 
to render it v/orthy of acceptance in a pecu- 
niary point of view. As soon as the last part 
was printed off, he presented the entire work 
to the Wesley an book committee. 

At the conference of 1S29, which was held 
at Sheffield, 'Mr. Watson preached a sermon 
on Acts xvii, 28, which, at the request of his 
brethren, was afterward printed. He also re- 
cei\'ed their acknowledo^ments for the ^ift of 
the great work which he had just completed ; 
and the following record appears in the Mi- 



234 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



niites : — ^' That the cordial thanks of the con- 
ference are due to the Rev. Richard Watson, 
for his kind and generous gift of the copy- 
right of his Theological Institutes to the Book 
Room.*' 

At this conference a strong effort was made 
by the friends at Birmingham to secure Mr. 
Watson's appointment to that circuit, and he 
was himself of opinion that, all things consi- 
dered, it was the most suitable place to which 
he could be sent ; after a long debate, how- 
ever, it was determined to appoint him to the 
siiperintendency of the London North circuit, 
of which City-Road was the head. His return 
to London was w^elcomed by a numerous circle 
of friends ; and though the station was not one 
which he Avould have chosen for himself, on 
account of the onerous duties connected wdth 
it, which were sufficient to exercise the full 
strength of a man in robust health ; yet he 
regarded the appointment as providential, and 
entered upon his labours with cheerful alacrity. 
His appearance at this time was sickly and 
languid ; his constitution during his residence 
in [Manchester had been evidently impaired by 
disease ; but his intellectual powers were as 
vigorous as ever, his habits of activity were 
unabated, and his piety had acquired a greater 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



235 



richness and iriatiirity. He seemed to feel 
that the continuance of his life was a matter 
of extreme uncertainty ; and he lived, and 
conversed, and preached, as became a man 
who almost daily expected to be summoned 
to "give an account of his stewardship." 

The office of honorary secretary to the ]\Iis 
sionary Society, to which he had been ap- 
pointed on his removal to Manchester, he 
continued to sustain after his return to London, 
and he rendered most efficient aid in the 
management of the society's affiiirs. He re- 
orularly attended the meetinors of the commit- 
tee ; prepared some of the most important 
official documents ; superintended the prepa- 
ratory studies of some of the missionaries ; 
and generally took a part in the services con- 
nected with their ordination. 

Notwithstanding the pressure of his duties 
as the superintendent of an important circuit, 
and the attention which he was called to 
devote to concerns of the missions, IMr. Wat- 
son, by his unremitting diligence, still found 
time to execute various literary projects. In 
the spring of 1830 he published his Conver- 
sations for the Young," a work of great utility, 
which he had written in his intervals of time 
during the autumn and winter, and upon which 



236 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



he had bestowed more than ordinary care. It 
is designed to assist the young in the profita- 
ble reading of the Holy Scriptures ; and con- 
tains, in a series of twenty-four conversations 
between a youthful inquirer and his teacher, a 
large mass of important information, being, 
in fact, a complete introduction to the study of 
the Bible. 

A young preacher, (the Rev. Samuel En- 
twisle,) for whom Mr. Watson had a strong 
regard, was at this time languishing under the 
power of disease, and apparently hastening to 
" the house appointed for all living." He had 
been compelled to leave his circuit, and was 
now at the house of his father, the Rev. 
Joseph Entwisle, at Bath. To encourage his 
dying friend under the pressure of his suffer- 
ings, Mr. Watson, who, from having himself 
long been a subject of severe suffering, knew 
how to sympathize with the afflicted, addressed 
him an affectionate letter, from which we give 
a single extract : — 

" The measure of affliction, a.nd the duration 
of suffering are in the hands of Him who cannot 
err ; and he will give strength for the day. 
It is lawful, with submission, to make these 
matters of prayer ; and greatly does God ho- 
nour prayer, because it is an expression of 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



237 



trust in him. But the great thing is, a per- 
fectly resigned will, grounded upon the full 
conviction that good is the will of the Lord. 
Then we shall say, — 

' Thankful I take the cup from thee, 
Prepared and mingled by thy skill.' 

Then shall we feel that we have only to live 
for the present moment. Now may you be 
enabled to say, ' Now in this pang, in this 
interval of ease, in this hour of languor, in this 
visitation of joy, in all, may I glorify my Lord ; 
and by all may his will and work in me be 
done !' I commend you earnestly, at this dis- 
tance, in prayer to the care and blessing of 
your heavenly Father. The earth which you 
are leaving is a mere vanity, as you know, 
without God ; all that it is more, it is made by 
him ; and in heaven God will be all in all. 
You will know more, love more there ; be 
employed in a higher service ; and will have 
this privilege, — you will escape to land before 
your friends, triumph before them, and see the 
Lord before them. 

' Thrice-blessed; bliss inspiring-hope I' 

May it fully triumph over fear in you ! You 
will not tread the wine-press alone. Parents, 
and brothers, and friends, all of whom have an 



238 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

interest in God, will aid you, are aiding you 
by their prayers. Above all, the Lord Jeho- 
vah is your everlasting strength. God be 
merciful unto you, and bless you, and lift upon 
you the eternal light of his countenance !" 

This whole letter was beautifully character- 
istic of the writer's views and spirit, and was 
made a great blessing to the dying minister for 
whose benefit it was written. It contained 
sentiments to which his heart responded ; he 
read it often, with feelings of pure and hal- 
lowed joy ; he placed it in his Bible ; and 
often said to his parent, when speaking of his 
spiritual state and prospects, Father, I should 
like to take this letter with me to heaven." 

At the conference of 1830 Mr. Watson was 
requested to write a life of Mr. Wesley, to be 
published in a cheap form, adapted for popular 
use, for the benefit of such persons as were 
unable to procure the voluminous work of Mr. 
Moore. Believing he had no talent for bio- 
graphical composition, he was at first some- 
what reluctant to comply witli this request. 
On his return to London, however, he imme- 
diately began to collect materials for the work ; 
and so intent was he on the accomplishment 
of his design, that he often deprived himself 
of necessary rest, and employed a considera- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



239 



ble part of the night in arranging his materials, 
and preparing the work for the press. His 
lamp might sometimes be seen burning in his 
study as late as three o'clock in the morning. 

While he was engaged in this work he 
received an invitation from this country to 
fill the Professorship of Belles Lettres and 
Moral Philosophy in the Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, which had just been established at Mid- 
dletown, Connecticut. In his letter declining 
the appointment he says, '* The honour you do 
me, in inviting me to a chair, I duly appreciate, 
and feel myself very unworthy of. To belles 
lettres I have no pretension ; moral philoso- 
phy I have studied, and think it a most import- 
ant department, as the source of most mis- 
leading error, or of important truth when kept 
upon its true principles, both theological and 
philosophic. Being, however, fifty years old, 
and having a feeble constitution, I do not think 
it would be prudent in me, vv^ere I otherwise 
better qualified, to encounter the fatigues of 
an unaccustomed duty, and a foreign climate. 
Brethren I know I should find, and a candour of 
treatment ; but I can only ofifer my best wishes 
that you may suitably and efficiently fill up so 
important a department." 

Mr. Watson's Life of Wesley was published 



240 LIFE, OF RICHARD WATSON. / 

on the 1st of June, 1830, and became imme- 
diately and deservedly popular. It was not a 
mere abridgment of previous works, but con- 
tained a large amount of original matter ; and 
the author havino- had the advantaoe of con- 
suiting unpublished papers, not known to pre- 
ceding biographers, was enabled to place some 
particulars in a more satisfactory light. The 
work was written in an elegant, easy, and 
perspicuous style, and its continued popularity 
confirms the judgment pronounced upon it by 
its earliest readers. 

At the conference which met at Bristol in 
1831, Mr. Watson received the cordial thanks 
of his brethren for the able and satisfactory 
manner in which he had fulfilled the request 
of the preceding conference, respecting the 
Life of Mr. Wesley, and for his generous gift 
of the copyright to the Book Room. 

As soon as his Life of Wesley was pub- 
lished, Mr. Watson was requested by the book 
committee to compile a Biblical and Theolo- 
gical Dictionary. He had for some years 
been making preparations for publishing such 
a work, intending to apply the profits arising 
from its sale to the benefit of his family in the 
event of his decease. Of this fact, however, 
the committee were not then aware, and Mr. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



241 



Watson, without informing them of it, imme- 
diately relinquished the idea of appropriating 
the profits for his family, and began to arrange 
his materials for the press. The work was 
published in parts, the first of which appeared 
in the beginning of October, and fully justified 
the expectations which had been formed re- 
specting it. Allien the publication was some- 
what advanced, and the demand for it was 
extensive, he Vv-as urgently requested to accept 
some remuneration for his sernces, especially 
as his original intentions as to pecuniary ad- 
vantages were then discovered : but this he 
peremptorily refused, declaring that unless he 
might be allowed to finish the work gratui- 
tously, for the benefit of the Wesley an body, 
he would decline all future connection with 
the publication, and the committee might com- 
plete it as they pleased. At that time he 
cherished the design, if his life should be 
prolonged, of writing some other work for the 
benefit of his Vvidow and children, should he 
be removed from them. 

In the fall of 1831 the country was filled 
with terror and alarm by the appearance of 
the Asiatic cholera, which, after extending its 
ravages through Hindostan, Persia, Turkey, 
"Russia. Poland, Germany. &c., had now bro- 



242 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

ken out in the north of England, and its exten- 
sion through the land was generally antici- 
pated. The mystery connected with this 
disease seemed to mark it out as a special 
visitation of the Almighty ; and in this light 
Mr. Watson viewed it. As soon as it appeared 
in the country, a day of humiliation, fasting, 
and prayer, was appointed for the congrega- 
tion and society connected with the City-Road 
chapel ; on which occasion a prayer meeting 
was held at eicrht in the morninor another 
at noon, and a third at seven in the evening. 
At the second of these meetings, Mr. Watson, 
after a suitable hymn had been sung, read, as 
appropriate to the solemn occasion, the twenty- 
fourth chapter of the first book of Samuel. 
He then engaged in prayer, in which he con- 
fessed, with expressions of humiliation and 
shame, the sins of individuals, of the churchy 
and of the nation ; acknowledged the just 
liability of the land to the severest inflictions 
of Almighty wrath ; and earnestly pleaded with 
God, that his mercy might yet spare a guilty 
people. He prayed that those vv^ho might fall 
by the scourge, might be prepared by divine 
grace for the awful event; and he besought 
" the God of all grace," in honour of his Son, 
and in the exercise of his sovereign, compas- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 243 

sion, to sanctify the judgments of his rod by a 
general and copious effusion of the Holy 
Spirit, so that the people might everywhere 
return unto him with penitential sorrow and 
praying faith. The hymns Avhich he selected 
and the congregation sung, during the subse- 
quent part of the meeting, were highly appro- 
priate ; and the entire service was such as 
can scarcely ever be forgotten by those who 
engaged in it. The people seem.ed to resign 
themselves absolutely into the hands of their 
Saviour, prepared either to live or die, as he 
might determine. The following verse was 
sung with intense feeling : — 

'Mesns, to thee we fly 

From the devouring sword ; 
Our city of defence is nigh ; 

Our help is in the Lord. 
Or, if the scourge overflow, 

And laugh at innocence, 
Thine everlasting arms, we know, 

Shall be our souls' defence." 

When the disease broke out in London, 
Mr. Watson preached in the City-Road chapel 
on Amos iii, 6, " Shall there he evil in a city, 
and the Lord hath not done it and endea- 
voured to impress the congregation, and espe- 
ciallv the pious part of them, with a conviction 



244 LllE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



that all calamities are under the immediate 
control and direction of the Lord, who has 
engaged that all things shall work together for 
good to them that love him. 

In this spirit he attended the annual watch- 
night in the City-Road chapel. The exercises, 
as usual, commenced at nine o'clock, and conti- 
nued till after twelve ; the congregation thus 
passing from one year into another in religious 
worship, and in those serious meditations which 
are suggested by the rapid flight of time, the 
approach of eternity, and the remembrance of 
departed days. The occasion, which is always 
a solemn one, was now rendered increasingly 
so by the prevalence of the pestilence ; and a 
deep seriousness seemed to be impressed upon 
every countenance. The services were con- 
cluded by Mr. Watson, who was so seriously 
indisposed as to be unable to remain in the 
chapel during the whole of the exercises ; he 
therefore came from his room to the pulpit, 
where he spoke "as a dying man to dying 
men." It was the last meeting of the kind he 
v/as permitted to attend. 

A letter written at the close of the year 
1831, to the Rev. W. M. Bunting, shows his 
deep sense of the responsibility connected with 
thf^ sacred offire, and the feelings Vv^th which 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



245 



he coiiternplated the termmation of his public 
labours. He observes, My health is very 
feeble, and I have hard work to keep on ; yet 
I never loved my work so much, and, I trust, 
never laboured more to do it in the solemn 
view of eternity. One thing I feel, standing 
upon the close of active life, (for much longer 
of efficiency cannot be hoped for by me.) ihe.i 
I have read, prayed, preached, in all far below 
the true standard of ministerial devotedness ; 
and that, if life were again to begin, I should 
endeavour, at least, to enter more fully into 
the spirit of the only work on earth which 
directly connects itself with ' glory, honour, 
and immortality.' I seem rather to have been 
in a dream than broad awake. Still these 
humbling thoughts serve to heighten the infi- 
nite grace which gives the sweet sense of 
acceptance ; and make me feel more powerfully 
the emphasis of, ' By grace are ye saved.' " 

The following is an extract of a letter vv^hich 
he addressed a few weeks after this to his old 
friend, the Rev. Jonathan Edmondson : — 

London, Fehrvary 14f/z, 1832. 

-\Iy Dear Sir, — I could not let this oppor- 
tunity pass wdthout saying that I sympathize 
with you in your invalid state of health, which 



246 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



I hope is but temporary ; and I pray that you 
may be spared yet many years to labour, both 
with tongue and pen, for the good of the 
church. My own health is miserably uncer- 
tain, and leaves me little hope of long active 
service. However, I am resolving, by God's 
grace, to work while it is called to-day. Ne- 
cessity lately took me to Leicester and Liver- 
pool. Friend Carr and I had several chats 
about you and old times. William Rawson is 
dead. Mr. Henshaw, at Liverpool, becomes 
a supernumerary next year. So the world 
passes away, and we, in different modes, 
along with it. But brighter scenes are before 
us ; of which may we always have an un- 
clouded prospect ! How easy it is to travel 
the space which has intervened since you and 
I spent so agreeable a year at L' icester! so 
truly a span is all past time. ell, I look 
back upon that year with pleasure, as it intro- 
duced me to your acquaintance, and I hope 
friendship ; and I have been always happy to 
acknowledge that I owe my first enlargement 
of mind, as to men and books, to your intelli- 
gent and free conversation. For this I am 
still grateful. 

" Mrs. Watson has been confined to the 
house by rheumatism for nearly five months ; 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 247 

SO that we have had a sick winter ; and now 
the cholera is surrounding ns. But it is ^ the 
arrow that fiieth by day and supposes an 
archer and an aim ; so we rest in wisdom and 
love infinite. A dark cloud hangs over this 
metropolis ; but the plague is one of the signs 
of the latter day." 

At this period he suffered greatly from afflic- 
tion, and was induced, by the urgent solicita- 
tions of his friends, to consult one or two of 
the most eminent physicians in London. He 
had often pursued a similar course before, but 
without any permanent advantage ; and he was 
not more successful in the present instance. 
On his return home he remarked, in his good- 
natured and humorous manner, that after being 
duly questioned respecting his symptoms, he 
was informed with all due and professional 
gravity, that his disease was a derangement 
of the biliary system ; and that he must care- 
fully avoid all such kinds of food as were 
difficult of digestion, ; information which 
he had received a thousand times, and for 
which he again expressed his obligations, and 
paid the accustomed fee. His days were now 
numbered ; his disease was such as no medi- 
cine could reach ; and the highest professional 



248 LIFE OF RICHARD VvATSON. 



skill could only secure for him an occasional 
alleviation of his pain. 

About this time was published the Report of 
the AVesleyan ]vIissions for 1831 ; from which 
it appeared that the income of the society had 
amounted to $229,375 ; that the number of 
mission stations was 156 ; the missionaries 
218 ; the salaried catechists and teachers, em- 
ployed chiefly in the day-schools, about 160 ; 
the gratuitous teachers in the Sunday and 
daily mission schools, upward of 1400 ; the 
number of scholars, children and adults, in the 
mission schools, 25,420 ; and the number of 
members in religious society, under the charge 
of the missionaries, exclusive of those in Ire- 
land, 42,757. The concluding part of the Re- 
port was written by Mr. AVatson, in his usual 
happy style. 

In the spring of this year (1832) the last 
part of his Theological Dictionary was pub- 
lished, and the work was issued in a complete 
form. The sale had already been very encou- 
rao^ino- • and its author lived to see the third 
edition rapidly passing through the press. 

Soon after the commencement of his minis- 
try in the City-Road chapel, in 1829, he com- 
menced a course of lectures on the Epistle to 
the Romans, which many of his hearers re- 



LIFE OF RICHARD ^\ ATSOX. 



249 



quested him to publish. In consequence of the 
frequent interruptions of his ministry, occa- 
sioned by the failure of his health, it appeared 
doubtful whether he would be able to complete 
the delivery of the course before the time of 
his removal ; and he was therefore strongly 
inclined to fill up his plan, and publish the 
whole without delay. He soon afterward, how- 
ever, altered his purpose, and formed the resolu- 
tion, if his life should be spared, to attempt an 
exposition, not of the Epistle to the Romans only, 
but of the entire Xew Testament. I do not," 
said he to Air. Jackson, make great preten- 
sions to learning; but I think I can judge of 
the critical labours of learned men, — give the 
English reader the results of their elaborate 
disquisitions and inquiries, — and show the 
theoloo-ical bearino^ of the sacred text. It 
shall be a principle with me to evade no dif- 
ficulties, however formidable, but to grapple 
with them in the best manner that I am 
able." 

Having formed his plan, he entered upon 
its execution with an energy and a vigour 
which, considering his personal sufferings, and 
the enfeebled state of his health, were truly 
surprising. He devoted to it every hour he 
could command, and so rapid and satisfactory 



250 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



was his progress that he believed he should 
be able to go through the whole New Testa- 
ment in three years, should his life be spared 
so long ; but he often remarked, " If I die 
before the work is finished, I shall not lose 
my labour ; for the spiritual benefit to my own 
mind is worth all the labour." 

The conference of 1832 was held at Liver- 
pool, at a time when the cholera prevailed in 
that town to an alarming extent, and many 
fears were entertained that the preachers 
would not escape that terrible scourge. Du- 
ring the week preceding the conference a day 
of special prayer was observed, and meetings 
of intercession were held, when many fervent 
supplications were presented to the throne of 
grace that the ravages of the pestilence might 
cease, the lives of the preachers be preserved, 
and the health of the town restored, Mr. 
Watson took a prominent part in these ser- 
vices, and prayed with a power and importu- 
nity which seemed more than human, and 
which made so deep an impression on the 
minds of those who were present, as to be a 
subject of general remark for a long time 
afterward. The voice of prayer was heard, 
the disease soon began to abate, and the 
preachers, and the families by whom they 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



251 



were kindly entertained, were all mercifully 
preserved. 

Mr. Watson's appearance at this time was 
such as seriously affected his friends. His 
strength was greatly reduced ; his counte- 
nance was unusually pale and sickly ; and he 
was in almost constant pain. His spirit, how- 
ever, was remarkably pious and cheerful ; his 
conversation was spiritual, instructive, and 
edifying ; and it was evident that he " walked 
in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of 
the Holy Ghost," and was anxious to bring- 
all around him into the same holy and happy 
temper. His weakness prevented his taking 
a leading part in the business of conference ; 
but he sometimes expressed his sentiments on 
subjects which he deemed important. He also 
preached occasionally, without much sensible 
diminution of his wonted energy; and his ad- 
mirable sermons, and solemn public interces- 
sions can never, by those who heard them, 
cease to be remembered with reverential and 
tender interest. 

Before the meeting of this conference Mr. 
Watson executed a deed, by which he con- 
veyed to trustees, in behalf of the connection, 
the copyright of all his published works except 
his " Conversations for the Young," which he 



252 LIFE OF lllCHARD WATSO^^ 



retained for the benefit of his family. This 
eminently liberal and disinterested conduct 
was gratefully acknowledged by his brethren 
in a resolution of the conference, which was 
ordered to be inserted in the printed Minutes. 

As Mr. Watson's strength was now so 
greatly impaired as to render him unable to 
discharge the duties of a travelling preacher, 
the conference complied with the request of 
the missionary committee, and appointed him 
to the office of resident secretary, with the 
Rev. Messrs. James and Beecham. It was 
hoped that, by avoiding the night air, and 
being relieved from the frequent necessity of 
week-night preaching, he would be able for 
several years to serve the mission cause, and 
edify the church by his writings. But his 
days were numbered, and his work was almost 
done. 

Dr. Adam Clarke was present at this con- 
ference, and took an active part in its affairs. 
When the business of the conference was con- 
cluded, he said to Mr. Watson, as they shook 
hands together, " Brother Watson,. I advise 
you, with as little delay as possible, to leave 
this town. The cholera, though it has abated, 
still prevails in Liverpool ; and what God is 
about to do with the people here is only 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



253 



known to himself." This appears to have 
been the last interview between these eminent 
men, who were then evidently mider consider- 
able alarm because of the judgments of the 
Almighty. In less than five months from this 
time both of them, one 

''' "Worn by slowly rolling years" 
of affliction and disease, and the other 
Broke by sickness in a day," 

were committed to the silent tomb. 

On his return to London 'Mr. "Watson began 
to prepare for his removal from the City-Road 
to the residence w'hich he had formerly oc- 
cupied when engaged at the mission house. 
He resigned his pastoral charge with strong 
and deep emotions ; for his attachment to the 
friends in the circuit generally, and to the so- 
ciety at the City-Road in particular, was 
very great. Many of them had shovrn him 
marks of affection and respect, had sympa- 
thized with him in his afflictions, and done 
every thing in their power to alleviate his 
sulferings ; and the years he had spent with 
them., he stated to have been am.ong the hap- 
piest in his life. 

On the last sabbath evening before his re- 
moval he did not preach, but met the society 



254 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



in the City-Road chapel, and delivered his 
parting admonitions to those who, for the past 
three years, had been the people of his charge. 
It was a solemn season. His apostolic ad- 
dress was truly affecting, and seemed to be 
attended with a special blessing to all present. 
He dwelt upon the nature, benefits, and obli- 
gations of Christian fellowship ; the signs 
v/hich indicate a church's prosperous or de- 
clining state ; intermixed with many solemn, 
tender, and faithful exhortations to a steady 
perseverance in the course of public and pri- 
vate duty. He expressed the pleasure he had 
received from the regular attendance of the 
church members at their several class meet- 
ings, and the other means of grace ; and la- 
mented that during the past year, in conse- 
quence of his frequent indisposition, he had 
not been able to fill his important station, as 
the superintendent of the circuit, as he had 
wished. He appeared like an affectionate 
father taking leave of his family. Recollect- 
ing the uncertainty of his own life, and the 
multitudes of devout people who had for- 
merly worshipped in that chapel, many of 
whom he had known, and whose spirits 
were then in the paradise of God, he called 
upon the congregation to unite with him in 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



255 



singing the following fine hymn of Mr. Charles 
Wesley, — 

" Come, let us join our friends above, 

That have obtained the prize ; 
And on the eagle wings of love 

To joys celestial rise. 
Let all the saints terrestrial sing, 

With those to glory gone ; 
For all the servants of our King 

In earth and heaven are one 

One family we dwell in him, 

One church above, beneath 
Though now divided by the stream, 

The narrow stream of death. 
One army of the living God, 

To his command we bow ; 
Part of his host have cross'd the flood. 

And part are crossing now. 

" Ten thousand to their endless home 

This solemn moment fly ; 
And we are to the margin come, 

And we expect to die ; 
His militant embodied host. 

With wishful looks w^e stand, 
And long to see that happy coast. 

And reach the heavenly land. 

" Our old companions in distress 
We haste again to see. 
And eager long for our release 
And full felicity : 

I 



256 LIFE OF RICHARD ^YATSON. 



Even now by faith we join our hands 

With those that went before ; 
And greet the blood-besprinkled bands 

On the eternal shore. 

Our spirits too shall quickly join, 

Like theirs with glory crown'd. 
And shout to se-e our Captain's sign, 

To hear his trumpet sound. 
0 that we now might grasp our Guide ! 

0 that the word were given ! 
Come, Lord of hosts, the weaves divide, 

And land us all in heaven." 

A prayer, remarkable for its power and impor- 
tunity, closed this memorable and most affect- 
ing service, and with it Mr. Watson's ministry 
in that favoured place. " Little," said an old 
disciple who was present on the occasion, 
"did many of us think, that he was then occu- 
pying for the last time that pulpit in which he 
had so often ministered to thousands the word 
of eternal life." 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 257 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Watson resiin^es his i 
Deaths of 1: a: ?:.: I rviir 
account o: : - :: . 
last sermor— Dei:r. :: He- 
Secretaries — Mr. Wars :n c 
desist from writing his Expoi-::: : 
Interesting- notices of his last day 

Mr. AVatsox entered upon his labours as 
secretar}- for the missions, (to adopt the ex- 
pression employed by his colleague IMr. James, 
in a letter to Air. Buntings) in fine style 
full of zeal and love, and anxiously solicitous 
to promote with his utmost powers the great 
cause to v\-hich he was once more ofEciallv 
and exclusively devoted ; with a deepened 
piety and mellovred character, and vv'ith graces 
evidently matured by sanctified affliction.— 
There was but one alloy, — the fears of his 
friends that his health and life were in no 
ordinary' degree precarious ; fears which, alas ! 
proved to be but too well grounded. 

The year upon which Air. AA'atson had now 
entered was one of the most melancholy in the 
annals of Wesleyan Alethodism for the remo- 
val of men of hio-h ministerial character and 
talent from their labours in Christ's militant 
17 



IS ^lissionarv Secretar;-— 




258 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

church on earth. Scarcely had the preachers 
time to repair to their new appointments before 
an unexampled scene of mortality was opened 
among them. No less than seven of the 
preachers stationed in London died in six 
months. The first that was called away was 
the truly venerable Dr. Adam Clarke ; a man 
respected by the w^hole Christian church for 
his uncommon erudition, his piety, zeal, apos- 
tolical simplicity, and ministerial usefulness. 
He died of cholera, calmly resting in the Sa- 
viour whom he loved, and had long preached, 
on Sunday, August 28. The Rev. Thomas 
Stanley, superintendent of one of the London 
circuits, was next called to his final reward. 
On the 9th of October he was walking in 
the streets, in his usual health, when he sunk 
upon the causew^ay, and instantly expired. 
The effect produced by the sudden removal of 
such men upon the susceptible mind of Mr. 
Watson, himself in a state of increasing weak- 
ness and affliction, may be easily conceived. 

Under great feebleness and constant suf- 
fering he nevertheless attended the mission 
house daily, and continued to discharge the 
duties of his office. He also regularly at- 
tended the committee appointed to manage the 
aff"airs of the Wesleyan Book-room ; but he 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



259 



shortened his visits to his friends, and greatly 
as he enjoyed the conversation of his brethren, 
no entreaties could induce him to prolong his 
stay when the business of the committees was 
discharged, so intent Vv'as he on completing 
his Exposition of the New Testament. To 
finish that v»'ork seemed to be the prevailing 
desire of his heart. 

At this time the jtlethodists in Hull were 
engaged in the erection of an additional cha- 
pel in that populous town, and vrere anxious 
to secure 3Jr. Watson's services at the dedi- 
cation, which was expected to take place early 
in the following spring. In answer to their 
application he says, — 

'-London, Octohcr 23, 1832. 

" I am an invalid, just able to do the in- 
door work of this office ; but my strength is 
gone, ^ly voice is cracked, by a complaint 
of the larynx, and my health very uncertain. 
I have therefore declined all engagements from 
home ; and those which I have upon the plans 
in London, through sudden attacks, I fre- 
quently do not fulfil. This is my trial. ]May 
I have grace to submit to it with cheerfulness, 
and be purified in the fire I 1 must now^ pass 
away from the more active scenes of the 



260 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

church, and from the public eye ; and I sub- 
mit, praying that those who are spared to work 
in the vineyard may have large success. For 
myself, I shall be glad to do a little behind 
the scenes while I am spared ; but this is all 
I can look for, according to the aspect of my 
present circumstances." 

On the morning of Sunday, the 28th of 
October, Mr. Watson attended his appoint- 
ment at Hinde-street chapel, when from the 
words, " Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the 
lomd of uprightness,'^ Psalm cxliii, 10, he de- 
livered an eloquent and impressive discourse, 
which proved to be his last. When he en- 
tered the pulpit he was exceedingly unwell, 
and his emaciated appearance deeply affected 
the congregation, many of whom were pain- 
fully apprehensive that his end was near. As 
he proceeded in the services, however, he 
seemed to forget his infirmities, and his minis- 
try that morning was made a special blessing 
to his hearers. He was in a state of great 
suffering when the service concluded ; and a 
friend who resided near the chapel pressed 
him to stay and take some refreshment before 
he attempted to return to his house ; but he 
was desirous to reach home without delay, and 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 261 

therefore declined tlie kind invitation. As the 
congregation retired, many an individual lin- 
gered to gaze upon the wasted form of their 
esteemed pastor, not a few of them sorrow- 
ing" for the probability that " they should see 
his face no more." 

A few days after this effort, and while his 
health still remained unimproved, his feelings 
received another shock by the sudden and un- 
expected death of the Rev. John James, one of 
his esteemed colleagues in the missionary se- 
cretaryship, and a man for whom he had long 
cherished a sincere and affectionate friend- 
ship. On Sunda,y morning, November 4, Mr. 
James appeared in his usual health, and at 
family worship gave out the hymn in which 
this impressive stanza is found, 

" Whisper thy love into my heart, 
Warn me of my approaching end ; 
And then I joyfully depart, 
And then I to thy arms ascend.*' 

In the evening he preached at the City-Road 
chapel, when he betrayed signs of languor, 
and his mind seemed to be occasionally con- 
fused. During the night he was attacked with 
apoplexy, and remained in a state of stupor, 
deprived of the power of speech till the fol- 
lowing Tuesday, when he expired. Mr. Wat- 



262 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

son felt his loss very severely. He felt too 
how precarious was his own state, and the 
solemnities of death and eternity now engaged 
his constant attention. He was confined to 
his house at the time of Mr. James' funeral, 
and was too ill to pay the last mark of respect 
to his lamented colleague, by following his re- 
mains to the grave. 

Mr. Watson at this time not only considered 
his recovery as hopeless, but he began to be 
apprehensive that his end was nearer than he 
had anticipated. He had now proceeded with 
his Exposition as far as the tenth chapter of 
Luke ; and being fully persuaded that he 
should never live to complete the work, he 
passed over the remaining chapters of Luke, 
as well as the whole of John and the Acts, 
and entered at once upon the Epistle to the 
Romans. Before he had finished the third 
chapter of the Romans his strength failed, and 
he was compelled to desist from all further 
attempts to explain those sacred oracles which 
had been for so many years his delight and 
study. He closed his labours, as a theological 
writer, with his note on Rom. iii, 22, 23, 
which is intended to explain the method of a 
sinner's justification before God, through faith 
in the sacrificial blood of Christ ; and the effi- 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 263 

cacy of the atonement whicli he there so for- 
cibly inculcates, he happily realized during the 
few remaining weeks of his suffering life. 

From this time his strength rapidly de- 
clined, and the pain which he often endured 
was fearful and overwhelming. All that me- 
dical skill could do was attempted in vain. 
The disease remained in undiminished power, 
and his case became peculiarly distressing. 
He had, indeed, intervals of comparative ease, 
but his paroxysms of pain became increasingly 
severe. They sometimes rose to agony, and 
continued, with scarcely any abatement, for 
twelve or fourteen hours. Such, however, was 
the energy of his mind, strengthened and sus- 
tained by the truth and grace of his almighty 
Saviour, that his patience and self-possession 
never forsook him. " I have seen him," says 
/ Dr. Hunter, his esteemed medical attendant 
and friend, " in such a state of suffering that 
nature could not have endured the slightest 
augmentation of his pain, but must have fainted 
imder the pressure ; and his cry was, not so 
much that the chastisement might be with- 
drawn, as that it might be overruled to the 
improvement of his piety. ' Let it be sancti- 
fied,' was his constant prayer : ' Q God, let it 
be sanctified.'" 



264 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

While he was in this state of affliction, 
waiting for the final summons, the great ques- 
tion of West India emancipation, in which for 
many years Mr. Watson had taken a great 
interest, was approaching its crisis ; and in 
this hopeful state of things Mr. Buxton wrote 
to him, requesting his advice as to the plan to 
be adopted. Feeble as he was he called for 
his desk, and wrote a long and valuable letter 
in reply. The writing was so tremulous that 
it was a matter of some difficulty to decipher 
it, but with some assistance from himself it 
was transcribed and forwarded. Just as he 
had finished the letter a friend called to see 
him, to whom he remarked, with considerable 
feeling, " I am now a dying man, but it is a 
privilege to have lived to see the time when 
the day of liberty begins to dawn upon those 
poor oppressed people in the West Indies." 

Mr. Watson was now confined to his sick 
room, life was ebbing out apace, and the time 
was at hand that he must die. He had a 
"great fight of affliction" to endure, and his 
religious principles were put to the severest 
test. In the time of comparative health death 
was not always to Mr. Watson a subject of the 
most agreeable contemplation. The circum- 
stances and the 'pain of dying somewhat alarmed 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



265 



him ; and he shrank from the prospect of the 
comTilsive and mortal pang which he appre- 
hended might prove so fearful. But as the 
time drew near he was blessedly prepared and 
strengthened both for the period of sickness, 
and the final conflict, and he was more than 
conqueror at last. The death bed of the 
just has seldom been more honoured than in 
his case ; and perhaps the closing scene of no 
saint's life ever furnished lessons of richer 
instruction. Those who witnessed the scene 
can never forget it. 

The following account of Mr. Watson's last 
days has been compiled from the statements 
furnished by those who visited him during his 
illness, and especially by members of his own 
family who attended him night and day. 

The last month of his life was marked by 
uncommon calmness of spirit. From the time 
when he gave up all expectation of recovery he 
manifested, both in his spirit and language, the 
most perfect resignation to the divine will. His 
was not a sullen and compulsory submission to 
an unavoidable fate, but a deliberate exercise of 
Christian faith and patience. He resigned his 
body to the tomb, — his soul to God ; and in 
death only made that sacrifice complete, in the 
spirit of which he had previously lived. 



266 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

He remarked on several occasions, ^' I could 
have v/ished to live a few years longer, to 
finish some works and designs of usefulness 
which I contemplated ; but the Lord can do 
without any of us adding, I have often ad- 
mired the perfect resignation of David, when 
he said to Zadok, ' Carry back the ark of God 
into the city ; if I shall find favour in the eyes 
of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show 
me both it and his habitation : but if he thus 
say, I have no delight in thee ; behold, here 
am I, let him do to me as seemeth good to 
him.' So I say. If the Lord has no delight in 
me, here I am, let him do to me what seemeth 
good to him." His constant language was, 
" I have no wish either to live or die, but that 
the will of God may be done and on one 
occasion, when a member of his family ex- 
pressed a hope of his recovery, he replied, 
with great sweetness, "It is the anxiety of affec- 
tion, without any basis of reason to rest upon." 

" It was my father's constant practice," ob- 
serves Mrs. Dixon * " when he and my mother 
were prevented by sickness from attending 
public worship on the sabbath, to read with 
her in the forenoon the whole of the Church 

* Mr. Watson's daughter married the Rev. James Dixon, 
now (1841) president of the Wesleyan conference. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



267 



service, including the psalms, the epistle, and 
the collect for the day. My mother read the 
litany, while my father, devoutly kneeling, 
responded with the deepest and most fervent 
devotion. In the evening he selected a ser- 
mon, (generally one of Mr. Wesley's,) to be 
read to him ; and then, with peculiar feeling 
and solemnity, repeated one of our hymns, and 
concluded with prayer. 

" On Sunday, December 16, a day never to 
be forgotten, he went through the liturgical 
service in the forenoon as above described. 
In the afternoon he exclaimed, ' Another silent 
sabbath! This is the sixth Sunday that I 
have been prevented by illness from lifting up 
my voice in the sanctuary !' Then handing 
me the hymn-book, he said, ' Read me some 
of these blessed hymns : I find them very re- 
freshing.' He then selected the following :— 

' 0 God, of good, the unfathom'd sea 

* Great God, indulge my humble claim 

* With glory clad, with strength array'd 

* The earth and all her fulness owns 

* O Sun of righteousness, arise ;* 
' Join all the glorious names.' 

In the evening I read, at his request, Mr. Wes- 
ley's sermon on ' The Way to the Kingdom.' 



268 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



As I proceeded he exclaimed, ' How strong ; 
yet how admirably simple ! How beautifully 
clear and perspicuous ! How forcible and 
convincing ! No man ever sav/ the " way to 
the kingdom" more clearly than Wesley, and 
no man ever made that way so plain to others. 
The more I study his writings the more I ad- 
mire them.' After reading a hymn, he prayed 
for nearly an hour, with astonishing and over- 
whelming power and energy, remembering not 
only his family individually, and pleading, 
nay, wrestling powerfully with God on their be- 
half, but also the church in general, and espe- 
cially our department of it, with an intensity 
of feeling and earnestness of supplication re- 
markably impressive and affecting." 

On Tuesday, December 18, he was visited 
by Mrs. Bulmer, the gifted authoress of " Mes- 
siah's Kingdom," who says, " He looked much 
emaciated, but he was cheerful, as usual, and 
the frame of his mind deeply spiritual and 
heavenly. He spoke^with great calmness of 
the probable issue of his affliction ; and added, 
' I have not now to learn, for the first time, 
that all is right and best, and as it should be, 
under the divine disposal, — whether restora- 
tion to health shall be vouchsafed to me, for 
further usefulness, or whether the continuance 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 269 

of severe pain shall shortly terminate my suf- 
ferings by death.' He then discoursed de- 
lightfully on the subject of a special provi- 
dence, and on the many opportunities he had 
enjoyed of testing the truth of that doctrine in 
his personal experience. ' God,' said he, ' in 
the wise economy of his government, has pro- 
vided for the answer of prayer.' He instanced 
such answers given to himself, especially as 
connected with his ministerial labours, when 
strength and refreshment had been remarkably 
vouchsafed to him in the hour of need, appealing, 
at the same time, to Mrs. Watson for the confirma- 
tion of his statements on this interesting point." 

"During his illness," says Mrs. Dixon, "my 
father frequently repeated the following strik- 
ing saying of Hooker : — ' Since I owe thee a 
death, Lord, let it not be terrible, and then take 
thine own time ; I submit to it. Let not mine, O 
Lord, but let thy will be done !' When in great 
. pain he would often quote this passage from 
^ Jeremiah, ' If thou hast run with the footmen, 
and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou 
contend with horses ; and if in the land of peace, 
wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then 
how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan ?'" 

While in health he was never remarkably 
communicative on the subject of personal reli- 



270 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

gion ; but he now became as simple and open 
as a child : nor had he been accustomed to 
give vent to his feelings by tears, — generally 
endeavouring to repress his emotions ; but he 
now yielded fully to the feelings of his hearty 
and when conversing on religious subjects, 
tears of deep humiliation, intermingled with 
sacred joy, often flowed in copious streams 
from his eyes. 

For some weeks Mr. Watson suffered greatly 
from periodical attacks of pain, to which he 
was subject during the latter stage of his com- 
plaint; and one of these paroxysms was so 
severe and protracted that it was feared his 
feeble frame would scarcely be able to endure 
another such attack. 

" On Sunday, December 23," says Mrs. 
Dixon, " my dear father was free from acute 
pain, but in a state of great exhaustion, from 
previous suffering. He seemed to be fully 
aware of his danger ; but his mind was per- 
fectly tranquil. Observing me weeping bit- 
terly, he said, ' Compose yourself, my dear 
keep your mind calm : commit the matter to 
Him who knows, not only what is right, but 
what is best. My flesh and my heart fail, but 
God is my rock. I know that my Redeemer 
iiveth ; and that when he shall appear, I shall 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



271 



appear with him. Yes ; I shall see him as he 
is.' On my expressing a hope that the disor- 
der had passed its crisis, and that he would 
from that time begin to recover, he said, 'Your 
affection makes you sanguine ; but I wish 
neither to hope nor to fear, since He in vv^hose 
hands I am knows best when to call his peo- 
ple to himself.- In the evening of the same day 
he requested me to read from the supplement 
a few of the hymns on the nativity, remarking 
thptt many of them were exceedingly striking 
and beautiful. While I was reading, he re- 
sponded to the sentiments contained in them 
with great fervour, and dwelt much on the 
majesty of the mercy of God in devising so 
magnificent and glorious a scheme of salva- 
tion. I then read those beautiful translations 
from the German, commencing 

* Commit thou all thy griefs,' 

and 

* Give to the winds thy fears 

which he said comforted him greatly." 

Having felt several unfavourable symptoms, 
he had remarked during the day, that he feared 
he might have a relapse. His apprehensions 
were realized. He passed the night in violent 
pain, and continued in great agony until Mon- 
day evening, when he experienced some re- 



272 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



lief. To Mr. Beecham, Avho called on him in 
the course of the day, he said, " All prospect 
of my recovery is gone. This return of pain 
proves that the cause of my affliction remains. 
I have no hope now. There is no rational 
grouiid of hope left. Nothing now remains 
for me but to address myself to the great work 
of preparing to suffer and die." 

On the following day he was sufficiently 
free from pain to converse without difficulty. 
Early in the morning he sent for his daughter ; 
and when she entered the room he smiled 
sweetly, and said, My dear, this is Christmas- 
ddij. This is the blessed morning on which 
Christ broke upon this dark, dreary world, when 

' Plunged in a gulf of dark despair 
We wretched sinners lay, 
Without one cheering beam of hope. 
Or spark of glimmering day.' 

O, what a blessed Saviour ! And here he is, 
<iver at hand, to sustain and comfort helpless 
man, and gild the dark and gloomy hours of 
pain and languor with bright hopes of immor- 
tal felicity." 

He was visited on the morning of this day 
by Mr. Beecham, who says, " I was no sooner 
seated by him than he began : ' Well, you see 
we are at length thrown back on those grear. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 273 

principles which we preach : " Life is yours;" 
"death is yours;" "things present;" "things 
to come ;" " all things work together for good 
to them that love God." Now, here are two 

points : first, Are these things so ? and, ~ have 

you an interest in them V Having paused, as 
if in solemn consideration of these questions, 
he then said, with strong feeling, ' Yes, these 
things are so ; these principles are true ; and, 
blessed be God, I have an interest in them ; 
but it is all through the blessed Spirit.' On 
my remarking, that it was a glorious reward 
for the faithful minister of Jesus Christ, in the 
season of deep affliction and suffering, to 
prove, as he did, the reality and consoling 
power of the great truths he had spent his 
life in maintaining and enforcing, he replied, 
with emphasis, ' Yes, a minister has higher 
enjoyments and privileges than Christians in 
general ; but he is exposed to greater tempta- 
tion. His is an awful responsibility ; and 
greater is the guilt of any unfaithfulness in 
Mm. I feel these things to be so.' He then 
dwelt on his own unworthiness, and the abas- 
ing sense he felt of the worthlessness o; his 
very best performances, and said his only 
hope, his only refuge, was in the pure atone- 
ment of Christ. He proceeded to enlarge on 
18 



274 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

the sufficiency of that atonement ; and showed 
what an infinite mercy it is that we have such 
a resource, and that we know what use to 
make of it. Then placing his attenuated hands 
together, and looking up to heaven, with his 
eyes partly closed, while his quivering lip 
marked the deep feeling of his soul, he quoted 
the following lines : — 

' His offering pure we call to mind, 

There on the golden altar laid, 
Whose Godhead with the manhood join'd, 

For every soul atonement made ; 
And have w^hat'er we ask of God, 
Through faith in that all-saving blood.' 

Then pausing, and looking for a few moments 
unutterable things, he added, with uncommon 
pathos, — 

' I the chief of sinners am ; 
But Jesus died for me.' 

" It was the following morning, if I remem- 
ber right, that he formally gave up all public 
business. He had told me, some days before, 
that he wanted to talk Avith me on a few 
points, as soon as he was able ; and being 
comparatively easy that day when I called 
on him, he laid on the table a small portfolio, 
in which he kept papers relating to the mis- 
sions ; and opening it, showed me what he 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 275 

had been writing in reference to matters wliich 
he had preriously deliberated on ; telling me 
I must now take up those subjects where he 
had broken on, and mtist finish them. After 
further conversation,, on my preparing to leave 
him, I gathered up only the papers we had 
been examining : when, taking them out of 
my hand, he placed them with the others in 
the portfolio : and folding it up. said, * Here, 
take all together. If I get better, you know, 
I can take it back again : and if not, I must 
leave you. and you must leave me/' 

On a subsequent day. as I sat alone with 
him, he told me that his arrangements for 
death were novr nearly completed : and talked 
with me about destroy-in g his useless papers, 
and respecting the manuscripts he should leave 
behind, and on his private affairs in general, 
with a calmness and composure which almost 
made me forsiet that I was conversing with 
one who regarded himself as a dying man. 
And this cool fortitude was not an occasional 
effort of the mind. In this respect I inva- 
riably found him the same. His dying was 
his common topic : and he would dwell on it 
with a composedness which srrikingly indi- 
cated that all was right within. And it is 
worthy of remark, that no favourable change 



276 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



which his case might occasionally present, 
ever diverted him, as far as my observation 
went, from the great work of preparing for death. 
For a week before he evidently changed 
for death, the worst symptoms of his case so 
far abated as to awaken some hopes again 
respecting him : and he said to me one day, 
' I may, it is possible I may, rally so far as to 
be able to advise with you again. But,' added 
he, looking up, while the tears glistened in his 
eyes, ' if not, blessed be thy name, I am re- 
signed to thy will.' 

" On my incidentally mentioning to him that 
his friends at a certain place had agreed to 
have a meeting for prayer in his behalf, he 
leaned forward, and covering his face with his 
hand, he wept, and said, ' What am I, that I 
should have an interest in the p -^yers of so 
many good people i' He repeated;y observed 
to me, during the latter part of his illness, that 
were he to be raised again, he believed it 
Avould be chiefly in answer to prayer ; and to 
this cause he said he must greatly attribute it, 
that his suflferings were so much mitigated, and 
that such a worm as he should enjoy so much of the 
divine presence and goodness in his affliction." 

The following incident, related by Mrs. 
Dixon, shows the perfect composure with 




lor me a fe 



Wlieie daj and aigM diijiiie His wor£; : : I t " " 

Then, clasping his hands, he exclaime : E t:- 
nity! eternity P and sinking back in his c]i?.:r. 
seemed to be absorbed in the eontemplatioiis 
which Aat momentons word had sngg^ested ; 
while his brightening- features^ becoming im- 
pressed with the ifss of his conceptions, 
assumed an almost supernatural expression. 
I felt awed, as in the presence of one aire ? 
beginning to realize the mysteries of the e t - 
nal and invisible state; and scarcely darei :> 
moTe or breathe, lest I shoold interrapi his 
heavenly mnsings, or bring down his soul from 
those * celestial heights.' ^ 

On the 27th of December Mrs B ulnirr 
visited Mr. Watson for the las: : S:.r 
says, Kever shall I forget the e :: : r ^ ^ : 
his conntenance, when I first kit e i ? : : r 
of his langoid and almost tearfnl r vf 1 : 2- 
a look of ineffable kindness and ? t: v : : : i 
seemed as if it conld be second oi- : i s.: 
with which I trust we shall again re g : : e v: a 



278 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

Other in a sinless and unsiifFering world. ]t 
dissolved my soul in grief. I felt assured that 
his stay among us could not be long, and the 
idea of his removal inflicted a poignant pang. 
His frame bore the impress of the agony he 
had endured. But his spirit seemed pavi- 
lioned in the very divine presence. He said 
he ' felt the sustaining power of God,' and dis- 
coursed for a short time, and with frequent 
intermissions through great debility, on that 
most delightful topic, peculiarly suggested by 
the season, ' They shall call his name Emma- 
nuel, God with us.' ' Yes,' said he, ' God with 
us, — 'With us all, — with each of us, — with us 
at all times, — under all circumstances ; espe- 
cially with us in deep sympathy with all our 
sorrows, dangers, and sufferings.' He was 
evidently giving utterance to sentiments the 
truth of which he was then powerfully realiz- 
ing in his own experience. Faith triumphed 
over dissolving nature, and the Rock of ages 
he felt to be the strength of his failing heart ; 
— our parting is indelibly written on mine. 
With a voice faltering through irrepressible 
emotion, he expressed a hope that our next 
meeting might be under more favourable cir- 
cumstances, and added, ' If not, — if not, — may 
we have a happier meeting in heaven !' " 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 279 



Speaking of his call to the ministry, to a 
kind neighbour who often visited him in his 
illness, he said, " My dear friend, God called 
me very early to the work of the ministry. I 
began to preach before I was fifteen years of 
age. I never had any doubt but that I was 
called of God. I always delighted in my 
work ; and I can truly say, in reference to the 
missions, and in some secular affairs neces- 
sarily connected with the ministerial ofhce, I 
have acted as I thought for the best ; but, my 
dear friend, we are all liable to err; and I 
doubt not that my motives have been fre- 
quently misunderstood. All secular affairs 
have a deadening tendency ; constantly pain- 
ing one's mind, and doing us injury." 

At another time, in conversation v/ith the 
same person, he said, " 0 what a state will 
that be, when /, / shall be singing hallelujahs 
to God and the Lamb ! when / shall be able 
to love him and serve him, without the possi- 
bility of sinning against him !" — laying great 
stress on 7. " O," he continued, "it is sin 
that keeps us at such a distance from God ! 
What a wonderful scheme is that of redemp- 
tion by Christ ! What a glorious state, when 
mind shall expand to take in the heights, and 
breadths, and depths of love divine ! to be able 



280 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

to enter largely into the mysterious wonders 
of Providence, without this clog of corruption^ 
/ shall see God ; I, I, individually, I myself, a 
poor worm of the earth, shall see God ! How 
shall I sufficiently praise him !" 

Making inquiries concerning a person who 
was immersed in the world, and absorbed in its 
pursuits, he exclaimed, " What a pity ! living 
for this world only ! Poor man ! how I pity 
him ! The world can give no solid satisfac- 
tion ; and then to have no hope of heaven ; 
no satisfactory resting place, or place of enjoy- 
ment suited to its capacities, for the immortal 
spirit ! How dreadful ! O how thankful ought we 
to be for better hopes, and brighter prospects !" 

To a friend who visited him on Saturday, 
December 29, he said, " I am very ill ; but I 
am where we have so often placed others, — in 
the hands of the Lord : he has imparted sweet 
consolation to me during my affliction. We 
have not preached cunningly devised fables. 

0 no ! There is real, solid, substantial com 
fort and support in religion. I have been 
many times heavily afflicted, and have been 
often brought, so to speak, into the waters ; 
but I have always found the rock firm beneath 

1 have never been so powerfully impressed 
with a sense of my own worthlessness as 



LIFE OF RICHARD V>"ATSOX. 



281 



during this illness ; and, in the prospect of 
approaching the majesty of God, my feeling is 
that of a worm crawling into the brightness of 
the sun. I feel as if about to take my place 
near some glorious throne ; but I wish to creep 
low, and feel my own nothingness." 

His favourite expression, when speaking of 
his state, was to call himself a worm. One 
night, moved by a sudden impulse, as he lay 
in bed, he exclaimed, with tears flowing down 
his languid countenance, " I am a worm, a 
poor vile v/orm, not worthy to lift up its head. 
But then," he added, " the worm is permitted 
to crawl out of the earth into the garden of the 
Lord, and there, among the floAvers and fruits, 
to speculate, if it can, on the palace and ivory 
throne of Solomon. 

' I shall behold his face, 
I shall his power adore, 
And sing the wonders of his grace 
For evermore.' *' 

It was remarked, No doubt, you will see his 
face." " Yes," he rejoined, " there is doubt of 
every thing but the great, deep, infinite mercy 
of God, — that is sure." 

The morning of Sunday, December 30, the 
last sabbath of his life but one, and the very 
last on which he could sit up and converse. 



282 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

was a precious season to him. "As I sat 
alone with him," says Mr. Beecham, " I made 
an observation respecting the sabbath, on 
which he exclaimed, ^ Blessed day of rest !' 
and then dwelt on the hallowed enjoyments of 
the sabbath, and its rich provision for the 
spiritual wants of man. After we had spent 
some time in prayer, during which the divine 
goodness appeared to overshadow us in an 
indescribable manner, I, on parting, said to 
him, ' May the Lord of the sabbath be with 
you !' — to which he responded with deep fer- 
vour, ' Amen, Amen !' He had a high sense 
of the importance of the sabbatic institution, 
for advancing the cause of religion ; and has 
more than once said to me, with great feeling, 
when I have called upon him on the Lord's 
day, and found him unable to stir out, ' Another 
blessed sabbath must, in regard of public wor- 
ship, be a blank to me.''" 

" On this day," observes Mrs. Dixon, " my 
beloved father became much worse, and seem- 
ed fully conscious that his end was not far 
distant. While I was supporting his head, he 
looked at me for some moments, with intense 
affection, and said, in a very solemn and em- 
phatic tone, ' May the blessings of the upper 
and the nether springs be yours for ever!' 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 283 

This was his parting benediction ; and from 
that time he said but little connectedly." 

" On the last day upon which he was able 
to discourse at length," says Mr. Beecham, "I 
sat with him a considerable time, and had full 
proof that he remained in the same elevated 
and heavenly frame of mind which he had 
manifested throughout his affliction. Such 
dignity, united with such deep humility ; such 
intellectual strength and vigour, attended with 
so much child-like simplicity ; such patience 
under intense suffering ; and in the intervals 
of pain, such indications of ineffable inter- 
course with God, and such outbeamings of 
hallowed joy, — have been but rarely witnessed, 
I conceive, in any dying saint." 

A few days before his death, having re- 
mained a long time in a state of lethargy, an 
organ struck up a sweet and plaintive psalm 
tune under the window. This roused him ; 
and opening his eyes, he feebly said, " O how 
sweet ! All ought to be harmony on earth ; 
every thing should praise the Lord : it would 
be so were it not for sin ; and in heaven this 
will be the case, v/here sin has no existence." 

At one time, being in great pain, he ex- 
claimed, " O how much labour and pain it 
costs to unroof this house ; to take down this 



284 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



tabernacle and tent, and to set the spirit free ! 
And when shall my soul leave this tenement 
of clay ! I long to quit this little abode, gain 
the wide expanse of the skies, rise to noblei 
joys, and see God.*' He then repeated his 
favourite stanza : — 

" I shall behold his face, 
I shall his power adore, 
And sing the wonders of his grace 
For evermore." 

In a state of high ecstasy, he burst forth but a 
short time before he was deprived of the power 
of connected speech, exclaiming, " We shall 
see strange sights some day ; not different, how- 
ever, from what we might realize by faith. But 
it is not this, not the glitter and glory, not the dia- 
mond and topaz, no, it is God ; he is all and in all !'' 

During three or four of the last days of his 
life, Mr. Watson sunk into a state of lethargy, 
appearing almost insensible to those around 
him, and was nearly incapable of the use of 
speech. No conversation could be held with 
him on any subject ; but at intervals he 
seemed to be engaged in devotional exercises. 
His fears of agony and struggle in his last 
moments were not realized. His prayers, and 
those of thousands in his behalf, were in this 
respect mercifully answered. When, after 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



285 



many hours of difficult respiration, the moment 
of his dissolution approached, his sanctified 
and happy spirit, without any apparent pain or 
convulsive struggle, left its tabernacle of clay, 
and entered the world of rest and love. 

Such was the calm and peaceful manner in 
which this devoted servant of God closed a 
life of laborious zeal and usefidness, and, for 
many years, of almost uninterrupted afflictions. 
He died at ten minutes past eight o'clock, on 
Tuesday evening, January 8, 1833, aged fifty- 
one years, ten months, and seventeen days.* 

The distressing intelligence of his death, 
which was communicated to the AYesleyan 
circuits throughout the country by a letter 
from ]\Ir. Beecham, the only surviving mis- 
sionary secretary, seemed to spread a gloom 
over the whole connection. The sensation 

*The subjoined brief description of the jjost mortem 
examination has been furnished by James Hunter, Esq. : 

" On making an examination after death, the gall blad- 
der and adjoining portion of the liver were found adhermg 
to the neighbouring yiscera. The gall duct was com- 
pletely obliterated, a case of very rare occurrence ; the 
gall bladder was much altered in structure ; and con- 
tained, instead of bile, a clear fluid like water. The 
changes in the liver, gall bladder, and ducts, were evi- 
dently of long standing ; and were sufficient to account 
for the distressing symptoms under which Mr. Watson 
had been labouring for years." 



286 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

excited resembled that which is felt by an army 
in battle when "a standard bearer fainteth." 

Mr. Watson's funeral took place at twelve 
o'clock on Tuesday, January 15. His remains 
were accompanied to their final resting place 
by a vast concourse of people, who attended 
to pay the last mark of respect to this distin- 
guished minister of Christ. When the pro- 
cession reached the City-Road chapel, where 
listening multitudes had so often attended his 
powerful ministry, that building v/as crowded 
to excess, and every one present appeared to 
feel the awful solemnity of the occasion. He 
was interred in the burying-ground behind the 
chapel, in which repose the ashes of many of 
the pious and distinguished dead. His tomb 
is near that of Mr. John Wesley ; and not far 
distant are those of Benson, Clarke, Bradburn^ 
Olivers, and Griffith; ministers who were "fa- 
mous in their generation, and men of renown." 

" A glorious voice hath ceased ! The funeral chant 
Breathe reverently Let it be wild and sad, — 
A more ^olian, melancholy tone 
Than ever wail'd o'er bright things perishing • — 
For that is passing from the darken'd land 
Which the green summer will not bring us back, 
Though all its leaves return." 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 287 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mr. Watson's personal appearance — Mental character— Attam- 
raents as a scholar and a theologian — Manner of conducting pub- 
lic worship — Character of his ministry-— Qualifications as mission- 
ary secretary — Attachment to Methodism — Cathohc spiat — Inde- 
fatigable diligence — Unfinished manuscripts — Exposition of Nevv' 
Testament— His humiht}- and self-diffidence — Disinterestedness 
and generosity — Kindness of spirit — Conversational talents — Fer- 
vent piety — Sanctified afflictions — Conclusion. 

Having traced tlie leading events of Mr. 
Watson's life, witnessed his triumphant de- 
parture, and followed his remains to their long 
home," we will now close our narrative wdth 
some general observations on his personal ap- 
pearance, character, ministry, and writings. 

In person, he was tall and slender : his sta- 
ture, as has already been observed, was six 
feet two inches. His physiognomy was very 
striking, — expressive of intellectual greatness, 
decision of character, and stronof affection. 
His face was long and thin ; his eyes were a 
dark brown, bright and piercing ; his forehead 
was broad, and remarkably lofty. His whole 
appearance showed the man of talent. Every 
feature was impressed vrith deep thought. In 
the earlier part of his life his countenance indi- 
cated great liveliness . but in his later years, 
intense study and care, with almost incessant 



288 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



disease and pain, impressed upon it an air of 
sadness and languor. 

His intellectual powers were of the highest 
order ; but he was distinguished not so much 
by the overpowering energy of any one faculty, 
as by the assemblage of all that constitutes true 
greatness. He united the fancy of a poet with 
a sound, discriminating judgment, a habit of 
minute investigation, and of calm and philoso- 
phic thought. There are in his works speci- 
mens of profound and original reasoning on 
theological and moral subjects, which would 
reflect credit upon the greatest divines and 
metaphysicians ; and there are other passages 
which, for sublimity of conception and beauty 
of illustration, would have an advantageous 
comparison with the most admired composi- 
tions in the Eno^lish tonoue. 

Although he made no pretensions to pro- 
found classical learning, yet his attainments as 
a scholar were very considerable. With the 
powers of his own language he was well ac- 
quainted ; and few men could express their 
sentiments on any subject with greater ele- 
gance and force.. He had some knowledge of 
Italian ; he read French with fluency and ease ; 
was well versed in Latin and Greek, and had 
made some proficiency in Hebrew. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



289 



His reading was immense ; and his acquaint- 
ance with the best English authors accurate 
and extensive. He had also successfully stu- 
died various branches of science, particularly 
optics, botany, astronomy, chemistry, logic, 
metaphysics, and the principles of govern- 
ment. 

But it was as a theologian that he chiefly 
excelled. He studied the Bible with deep 
attention and profound interest ; and no man 
was better qualified to appreciate and relish its 
hallowed beauties, both of lanouao^e and senti- 
ment, and to estimate the nature and importance 
of its doctrines. His convictions of the divine 
authority of the sacred volume were deep and 
solemn. During his last illness, before the 
hope of recovery v/as finally abandoned, he 
observed to a friend, If I live to enter a pul- 
pit again, O how I will endeavour to preach ! 
I and my first text shall be, ' All Scripture is 
' given hy inspiration of God.'' " His views of 
revealed truth were original, profound, and 
comprehensive ; and in the solution of theolo- 
gical difficulties, and the exhibition of Chris- 
tian doctrine in its native purity, perhaps he 
was never surpassed. There was nothing spe- 
culative in his theology. " He walked in the 
beaten path of the church, and bent all his 
19 

I 



290 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



forces to the establishment of received truths ; 
accounting it greater glory to confirm an an- 
cient verity than to devise a new opinion." 

In the pulpit Mr. Watson appeared to tho 
greatest advantage. The manner in which he 
recited the hymns was very striking, and re- 
markably impressive. The Wesleyan hymn- 
book was never made to speak with happier 
effect than vvhen in his hands. The repetition 
of a single stanza has often produced a visible 
effect upon a large assembly, at once repress- 
ing every appearance of inattention, and pro- 
ducing a feeling of solemnity and awe ; while 
the devout part of his hearers frequently won- 
dered how it was that they had never before 
seen the full beauty and force of the hymns 
which they had long been accustomed to sing. 

His prayers were characterized by great 
variety of sentiment and language, deep se- 
riousness, strong expressions of penitence and 
humiliation, and a distinct recognition of the 
mediation of Christ, and the work of the Holy 
Ghost. They were also distinguished for the 
earnestness and pleading importunity with 
which they were uttered. At times the " spi- 
rit of interceding grace" seemed to rest upon 
him to such a degree, that it appeared as though 
to him the veil were withdrawn, and that he 



LIFE OF RICHAPcD WATSOX, 



291 



was permitted to enter into tlie "holiest of all,'* 
while the congregation w^ere pra}dng without. 
As the deep tones of his voice, tremulous with 
emotion, fell on the ear, the worshippers felt 
that their minister had communion with God, 
and was laying their offerings at the very foot- 
stool of the throne. 

The great object of his ministry was to do 
good to the souls of men. He appeared in the 
pulpit .as though he had to do the work of God 
in the presence of God. There was no attempt 
at display in his preaching. Though he often 
employed rich and brilliant imagery, yet it was 
never introduced merely for the sake of orna- 
ment. Every thing that he said was clearly 
designed either for illustrating the truth, or 
deepening- its impression on the heart. It was 
not Hezekiah opening his treasure-house for 
the exhibition of his own riches, but Solomon 
bringing the vessels of gold and silver into the 
house of the Lord, and consecrating them to 
the service of the sanctuary. 

His pulpit addresses were distinguished by 
a commanding eloquence, an intimate acquaint- 
ance with the doctrines he inculcated, and with 
the v/hole tenor of the sacred writings from 
which they derived their support. His know- 
ledge of Christian theology was so deep and 



292 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



extensive, that even when he dwelt upon the 
first principles of religion an air of novelty ap- 
peared to be thrown over his discourses. Often 
did he pour forth the stores of his mighty and 
v\^ell-furnished intellect, so that he appeared to 
his hearers scarcely an inhabitant of this world. 
The celebrated Robert Hall, speaking on one 
occasion of Mr. Watson's preaching, observed, 
"He soars into regions of thought which no 
genius but his own can penetrate." Xhe vi- 
gour of his imagination was unbounded ; he 
could rise to the loftiest heights apparently 
Vvdthout an effort ; and yet this faculty was so 
completely under the control of a severe and 
discriminating judgment, that the most fasti- 
dious critic might attend his ministry for years 
v/ithout beino^ able to detect the slio-htest viola- 
tions of just taste in the metaphor s which he 
introduced. But the greatest charm of his 
preaching was its richness in evangelical truth 
and devotional feeling ; and in these admirable 
qualities, — the soul of all good preaching, — 
it increased to the last. 

His voice, wdiich was clear and distinct, 
and deep, though not loud, possessed a pecu- 
liar pathos and solemnity, and was singularly 
suited to the prevailing tone of his discourses. 
His style was pure, perspicuous, and elevated; 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



293 



never turgid and deciamatory. His action was 
calm, appropriate, and dignified ; in keeping 
with the cast of his mind, the magnificence of 
his subjects, and the hallowed nature of his 
office as a minister of Jesus Christ. 

During the latter years of his life his ser- 
mons were less adorned with metaphor than 
they were wont to be at an earlier period. " He 
put forth," remarks one of his colleagues, " less 
of tha blossom, and more of the fruit." Lf, in 
consequence of this, his discourses seemed to 
be less attractive than formerly, they were, on 
.the other hand, more richly imbued with evan- 
gelical truth, entered more fully into the deep 
things of God, and were, it is believed, ren- 
dered more extensively useful. 

In the early part of his ministry he was not 
accustomed to write largely with reference to 
the pulpit. His discourses were well studied 
and arranged in his own mind ; but he seldom 
committed to paper more than a very concise 
outline of them, and often nothing at all. At a 
later period, however, he was accustomed to 
write a copious summary of each sermon be- 
fore its delivery; and those which he preached 
on public occasions were generally written at 
full length. 

Of Mr. Watson as a Christian pastor suffi- 



294 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



cient has been said in other parts of this work 
to render any further remarks necessary. 

For the office of missionary secretary perhaps 
no man w^as better qualified than Mr. Watson. 
His high sense of justice and honour rendered 
him cautious in the appropriation of public mo- 
ney ; and his affection for the missionaries 
secured from him prompt attention to their 
wants. He was thoroughly acquainted with 
the peculiarities of every station under the care 
of the society ; and his letters of advice and 
encouragement to the missionaries were marked 
by fidelity, wisdom, and kindness. His respect 
for the missionaries was strong and cordial ; 
and he greatly honoured them for their work's 
sake. Their self-denial, heroic piety and zeal, 
excited his admiration; their discouragements 
and privations awakened his sympathy ; and 
daily did he, in the most feeling manner, invoke 
blessings upon the head of the missionary, and 
upon "the crown of the head of the man" who, 
to save souls from death, was " separated from 
his brethren," and exposed to the discomforts 
and dangers of a foreign, and perhaps bar- 
barous, land. 

In the missionary cause he occupied him- 
self with a zeal and devotedness of spirit, and 
a degree of creneral acceptance and success, 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



295 



which v\-ill rarely be equalled,— never excelled. 
The growing prosperity of the missions was to 
him a ground of holy joy and triumph. He 
lived to see the income of the society raised 
from 833,500 to upv/ard of $237,000 ; and the 
number of missionaries from sixty to more than 
two hundred, exclusive of catechists and sub- 
ordinate teachers ; while the members of so- 
ciety under their pastoral care had increased 
from fifteen thousand to nearly three times that 
number. To this glorious result Mr. Watson's 
labours, perhaps, more than those of any other 
person, mainly contributed. 

Mr. Watson's attachment to Wesleyan Me- 
thodism was strong and decided. His days 
and nights were devoted to its interests ; and 
he never seemed to think that he had done 
enough for the people among whom he had 
found the " pearl of great price," and whom, 
above all others, he esteemed and loved. When- 
ever Methodism was assailed, or the character 
of its foiyider misrepresented, he appeared as 
the unflinching advocate of both ; and v/hatever 
reputation he possessed as a man of talent and 
genius, he willingly employed in the service 
of bis brethren, and the cause which they had 
espoused. With the whole system of Method- 
ism, — its doctrines, discipline, laws, and insti- 



296 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



tutions, — no one vv^as better acquainted ; and in 
the deliberations of conference no voice was 
heard with greater attention — no judgment was 
more implicitly relied on. 

But while he was thus cordially attached to 
his own people, he was, at the same time, emi- 
nently free from anything like a narrow, secta- 
rian feeling. In every spiritual worshipper of 
God he recognised a friend and a brother ; and 
he delighted to show his love to other denomi- 
nations by occasionally occupying their pulpits. 
He repeatedly preached in some of the Baptist 
and Congregational chapels in London and its 
neighbourhood, and particularly for his friend, 
Dr. Henry F. Burder, of Hackney, a man of 
kindred spirit. 

Another trait in his character was his inde- 
fatigable industry. He was one of the most 
striking examples of Christian diligence the 
world has ever seen. He was never unem- 
ployed, and he was never employed in a 
trifling manner. He appeared ever to^ct on his 
own sentiment, that " intellectual uselessness 
is sin." His very relaxations and recreations, 
if such they might be called, were instructive 
both to himself and others. A walk in a 
field or garden with him was a kind of lecture 
on some branch of natural philosophy ; and lu; 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



297 



never seemed to be in his element but when 
gathering or communicating instruction. 

His labours and usefulness during the last 
twenty years of his life, especially when viewed 
in connection with the state of suffering in 
which much of that time was spent, have, per- 
haps, no parallel in modern times. His duties 
as a travelling preacher were numerous and 
urgent ; and those of his missionary secretary- 
ship, with his frequent calls to deliver occa- 
sional sermons and addresses in all parts of 
the country, were such as often to leave him 
scarcely any time at his own disposal. Had 
he attended to these alone he might have been 
held up as a pattern of ministerial fidelity and 
diligence. But, besides performing all these, 
he published many important works, by which 
" he, being dead, yet speaketh," and will con- 
tinue to speak to generations yet unborn. 

It may give some idea of his activity to sur- 
vey his labours for the last three years of his 
life, when he was stationed at the City Road ; 
and they are merely a specimen of his regular 
and accustomed exertions. During this period 
he was in a state of almost constant affliction ; 
and through pain and disease presented almost 
the appearance of a living skeleton ; yet he 
discharged with efficiency the duties of super- 



298 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



intendent of the circuit, and exercised his regu- 
lar ministry, except when disabled by sickness. 
He attended the numerous meetings of the mis- 
sionary and book committees, and spent mucli 
time in deliberating with the other secretaries 
on the affairs of the missions : he wrote his 
Conversations for the Young, and his Life of 
Wesley ; he arranged the matter of his Theo- 
logical and Biblical Dictionary, composed many 
of its articles, and superintended the printing 
of the whole ; and he also wrote his admirable 
Exposition of St. Matthew's Gospel. Not sa- 
tisfied with these efforts, he meditated an Ex- 
position of the Old Testament when he had 
finished the New ; and he had entered upon 
a Life of Mr. Charles Wesley, which he in- 
tended to pursue as a sort of relaxation from 
severer studies. 

Such were the labours of a dying man. Had 
he laboured less he might have lived longer ; 
but 

' He scorn'd his feeble flesh to spare, 
Regardless of its swift decline ; 
His labour this, his only care, 
. To spread the righteousness divine." 

His heart was in his work ; and he " counted 
not his life dear unto himself, that he might 
finish his course with joy, and the ministry 



LIFE OF RICHARD AVATSOX. 



299 



that he had received of the Lord Jesu:^. to tes- 
tily the gospel of the grace of God/' In the 
midst of life,''" says Air. Montgomery, he con- 
sumed away, like incense upon the altar, burn- 
ing bright, and diffusing fragrance, till not a 
residue can be seen." 

In addition to the works which he had pub- 
lished, 'Mr. Watson had by him at the time of 
his last illness a large quantity of unlinished 
manuscripts : but when he had given up all 
hope of recovery, having neither time nor 
strength to arrange and correct his papers, he 
committed nearly the whole of them to the 
flames, except his Exposition, his sermons, and 
some of the speeches which he had prepared 
for public occasions. Amono- other valuable 
documents which were consumed on the occa- 
sion, two are particularly remembered, by some 
of his friends, as possessing a deep interest. 
These were an elaborate Dissertation on the 
Salvability of the Heathen, which he wrote 
when stationed in Hull ; and an Introduction 
to a History of jlissions. For many years he 
had cherished the design of vrriting such a his- 
torv : and the somewhat long Introduction 
which he had prepared, shows the earnest 
attention which he had directed to the subject, 
though his official engagements prevented his 



oOO LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



making any progress in the work. The Wes- 
leyan Book Committee pm'chased the papers 
which were spared ; and the Exposition was 
immediately put to press, according to Mr. Wat- 
son's intention. It is unquestionably one of the 
finest specimens of that species of composition 
in the English language. Without any of the 
parade of learning, it contains substantially all 
the light that classical and Jewist! literature 
have thrown upon those parts of the sacred 
writings which he professes to explain, espe- 
cially upon the gospel of Matthew. " His 
qualifications for interpreting Scripture were 
of the first rank. Calm, judicious, extensively 
read, possessing sound learning, he had, at 
the sam^e time, a clear insight into the mind of 
the Spirit, and an intimate acquaintance with 
the phraseology, idiom, and general principles 
of interpretation of the Hebrev/ and Christian 
Scriptures."* 

Self-difhdence invariably attends real intellec- 
tual greatness and true piety. Hence, adorned 
as Mr. Watson's character was with such an 
imusual combination of literary, religious, and 
moral excellences, — conscious as he must have 
been of the value attached to his literary pro- 

, * London Evangelical Magazine ; — a periodical pub- 
lished under the patronage of the Oongregationalists. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



301 



ductions. — of his popularity as a preacher. — of 
the deference with v»'hich his opinions and 
advice were regarded, — he possessed unfeigned 
humility of spirit ; and among that rich constel- 
lation of virtues that adorned his character, this 
grace shone with pre-eminent lustre, and dif- 
fused a brighter radiance over all the rest. 
While he was followed by the applause of the 
wise and the good, he laid all his honours at 
the foot of the cross, and spoke of himself in 
language of deep self-condemnation. 

His disinterestedness and generosity were as 
remarkable as his other qualities. He merged 
his own personal interests in the lofty view 
which he took of what he believed to be his 
duty to God and the church. It was a maxim 
with him, that a Christian minister ought not 
to hoard up any of the property which may be 
given him by the church for his maintenance. 
If any thing remain when his own vrants and 
those of his family are met, he thought it should 
be applied to the relief of the poor and the ad- 
vancement of religion. In his own practice he 
even went beyond this. He gave his literary pro- 
ductions, with but one exception, to the church ; 
so that the pecuniary advantages arising from the 
sale of them should be applied to the promotion 
of the kingdom of Christ. He was not rich ; — 



302 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 



he had an undoubted claim to compensation for 
his labours ; — he was sometimes urged to ac- 
cept it ; but, animated by 4he same elevated 
feeling that prompted Elisha to refuse the grate- 
ful offering of the renovated Naaman,he rejected 
every offer of the kind. His liberality to the poor 
and indigent knew no limit but an empty purse ; 
and he often subjected himself to straits and in- 
conveniences to relieve the wants of others. 

To those who knew him only as a public 
man, he appeared to be somewhat cold and 
repulsive in his manners. Such, however, was 
not the case. No person would indeed at any 
time have presumed to attempt any undue fami- 
liarity with him. There was that in his very 
countenance which commanded the respect and 
veneration of all who approached him ; but it 
was not possible to be long in his society with- 
out perceiving the cordiality of his feeling, and 
the benevolence of his temper. By his friends 
he was greatly and deservedly beloved for his 
habitual benignity both in spirit and in con- 
duct. Those who applied to him for favours 
found him " easy to be entreated." When 
requested to preach occasional sermons, he 
rarely refused, if it was in his power to comply ; 
and the readiness with which he consented 
greatly enhanced the vahie of his services. 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



303 



It is true that in the latter years of his life, 
his severe and almost iininterriTpted sufferings 
excited an influence upon his spirits, and at 
times made him seem austere, and almost un- 
courteous to those who would, for frivolous ob- 
jects, have intruded on his hours of study or 
business. And, perhaps, while he very pro- 
perly denied his society to mere idlers, he did 
not always feel, in this, and a few other re- 
spects, so strongly as might have been desired, 
how much is reasonably due to the claims and 
sensibilities of tried and faithful friendship. 
All these infirmities, hov/ever, were but as 
spots on the sun's surface ; and they v»'ere of 
rare and transient occurrence. 

Until his afHictions had seriously affected 
his spirits he Vv'as eminently social and com- 
municative ; and to the end of his life he 
greatly enjoyed the company of pious and in- 
telligent persons. In his intercourse vrith his 
friends, and his moments of relaxation from 
severer pursuits, he was often playful as a 
child, and would relate anecdotes, of which he 
possessed a great variety, w4th admirable effect 
and native humour. Yet he never indulged in 
unbecoming levity, or lost sight of the respect 
due to his office and character as a minister of 
Christ. His conversational powers were very 



304 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



great ; and he was ever ready to impart to 
others those treasures with which his own 
mind was so richly stored. Whenever he ap- 
peared in the social circle he was gladly hailed 
as the star of the ascendant ; and his friends, on 
retiring from his society, would often remark, 
" Mr. Watson never disappoints us ; his convex - 
sation is always interesting, and always new." 

In the various domestic relations he was en- 
titled to high commendation. He did indeed 
" honour his father and mother," not only by 
every mark of filial affection and respect, but 
by affording them assistance under the pressure 
of age and adverse circumstances. Often did 
he deny himself that he might be the better 
able to promote their comfort. His surviving 
family speak of him as one of the kindest of hus- 
bands and parents, whose constant solicitude it 
was to meet their wishes as far as lay in his 
power ; and no sacrifice did he deem too great 
in his endeavours to make them happy. 

His greatest praise was his deep and fervent 
piety. He evidently spent much time in secret 
prayer, and in holy converse with God ; and he 
diligently searched the Scriptures, not merely 
to find matter for the pulpit and the press, but 
with reference to the regulation of his own 
heart and life. He was not accustomed to 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSOX. 



305 



speak much, of his personal religious attain- 
ments in the presence of others. His piety 
was imbodied in his habits and actions, rather 
than proclaimed by his lips. It was manifested 
by his devotional spirit, his conscientious re- 
demption of time, his kindness of temper, and 
his anxiety to promote the happiness and reli- 
gious improvement of all around him. In his 
social visits, while he strove to make his com- 
pany interesting and instructive, he always di- 
rected attention to the things of God ; and his 
devotional exercises on these occasions were 
marked by peculiar sanctity and sweetness. 

He lived under a strong impression of eternal 
realities, and Vv'as elevated far above the sphere 
of mere earthly and sensual delights. His 
thoughts," observes an intimate friend, w^ere 
much in heaven. He had acquired very en- 
dearing and exalted views of the happiness 
into which the righteous enter immediately 
after their deliverance from the burden of the 
flesh. He highly estimated the recompense 
as well as the repose of their final state ; and, 
under these impressions and hopes, kept an 
habitual watch over his motives and affections, 
labouring, that whether present or absent he 
might be accepted of God." 

He vv^as a remarkable instance of sanctified 
20 



306 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

affliction. For many years his personal suf- 
ferings were great, and he seemed to be sus- 
pended over the gulf of eternity by a single 
thread. The frequent interruption of his la- 
bours and projects exercised his submission to 
the divine will, till his soul was as a weaned 
child," and even the desire of life for the pur- 
pose of usefulness became extinct. The prayer 
which he had often uttered was fully an- 
swered : — 

" With me in the fire remain, 

Till like burnish'd gold I shine ; 
Meet, through consecrated pain. 

To see the face divine." 

When he had "fulfilled as a hireling his 
day," and finished the work which was given 
him to do, the Master said, " It is enough ; — - 
come up higher." His waiting spirit heard 
the joyful summons ; and, gladly quitting all 
below, winged its triumphant flight to the 
mansions of eternal bliss ; there to join with 
the " great multitude which no man can num- 
ber," in ascribing "blessing, and honour, and 
glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and 
ever." 



LIFE OF RICHARD \VAT50X. 307 



INDEX. 

Page 

Mr. Watson's birth and infancy . 7 

. His early education 8 

Character of his father 10 

Death of one of his sisters 11 

Removal to Lincohi 12 

Leaves school, and is apprenticed to a carpenter 15 

His personal appearance 15 

Melancholy change in his character 18 

Circumstances of his conversion 18 

Diligence in improving his time 23 

Singular accidents 24 

Sudden death of his grandmother 25 

Begins to preach when only fifteen years old 26 

His labours as a local preacher 28 

Supplies the place of a preacher at ZNewark 34 

His ministry in the Ashby-de-ia-Zouch circuit 39 

Is appointed to Castle Domngton circuit 41 

Removes from thence to Leicester - 42 

Mr. Edmondson's account of him at this time 43 

Appointed to Derby circuit 47 

His first attempt at authorship - 48 

Is received into full connection with the conference . = 51 



308 LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 

Pagf 



Appointed to the Hinckly circuit 51 

Studies Greek and Hebrew 52 

His retirement from the ministry 55 

Enters into business, and marries 58 

Unites with the Methodist New Connection 59 

Becomes a travelling preacher among them 60 

Labours in the Manchester circuit - 60 

Publishes the Book of Kane 61 

His first printed sermon 63 

Notes on Stackhouse's Body of Divinity 64 

Removal to Liverpool 66 

Letters to his friends at Manchester 67 

His literary labours 80/ 

Failure of his health 84 

Reappointed to Manchester circuit _ „ 86 

Delivers a course of expository sermons _ . . . „ 87 

Publishes a letter on Lord Sidmouth's Bill 89 

His health again fails _ 90 

Retires from the Methodist New Connection 9Q 

Becomes a private member of the Wesleyan body . . 91 

Engages as editor of a paper at Liverpool 93 

Recovers his health, and becomes a local preacher . . 94 

Rejoins the Wesleyan Conference 94 

Appointed to the Waliefield circuit 96 

Death of his father _ 98 

Dr. Coke's labours in the missionary cause 103 

Death of Dr. Coke 106 

State of the Methodist missions at that time ... 107 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 309 

Page 

Formation of a missionar}" society at Leeds 108 

Mr. Watson preaches on the occasion 108 

First Methodist missionary meeting is held at Leeds 112 

Anecdotes of the West India missions 113 

Mr. Watson at the HaUfax and Sheffield meetings . . 115 

Mr. Montgomery's speech at Sheffield 117 

Mr. Watson's ministry at Wakefield 122 

His removal to Hnll 125 

Dedication of a new chapel m that town 126 

Mr. Watson's ministry in that circuit 127 

Providential escape from imminent danger 130 

Report of Mr. Watson's being robbed 133 

Preaches a missionary sermon in London 135 

Stationed in the London east cii'cuit 139 

Appointed one of the missionary secretaries 139 

Extent of his labours set this time 140 

Missionary Report for 1816 142 

Publishes a Defence of the West India ^lissions 149 

Missionary Report for 1817 153 

Pamphlet on the eternal Sonship 154 

Appointed to London west chcuit 156 

Preaches before the Sunday School Union 157 

Missionary Report for 1819 158 

Visits Cornwall and Norfolk 159 

Mr. Emory's visit to the British conference ... 161 

Mr. Watson's Reply to Southey's Life of Wesley ... 164 

Missionary Report for 1820 167 

Anniversary of Missionary Society in 1821 167 



310 LIFE OF RICHARD VvATSOX. 

Page 

Conference of 1821 169 

Mr. Watson appointed resident missionaiy secretars^ 171 

Becomes a private member of a class 17^: 

Letter to a missio-nary 178 

Missionary Report for 1821 179 

jlr. AVatson again visits Cornwall 180 

Is confined with the gout 181 

Visits Brighton for his health 188 

Commences his Theological Institutes 191 

Letter respecting a mission to Jerusalem 192 

Letter on instrmnental music in churches 196 

Obser^'ations on congregational singing 199 

Publications of the Wesleyan Catechisms 204 

Mr. ATatson's sermon on the West India missions . . 205 

His visit to Oxford and Nuneham 207 

Conference at Leeds in 1824 , 209 

Mr. Xewstead's account of the journey thither 209 

Missionary Report for 1824 211 

Conference at Bristol in 1825 212 

Mr. Watson's diligence in redeeming the time 214 

r\Iissionary Report for 1825 215 

Loss of missionaries by ship\^-reck 217 

Death of Mr. Butterworth 218 

Conference of 1826 , 219 

;Mr. Watson elected president 219 

Closing exercises of the conference 220 

Missionary Report for 1826 223 

Mr. Watson visits Scotland and Ireland 224 



LIFE OF RICHARD WATSON. 311 



Conference of 1827 224 

Mr. Watson appointed to Manchester 226 

His ministry there 228 

Completion of his Theological Institutes 232 

He presents the copyright to the connection 233 

Is appointed to the City Road circuit, London 234 

Publishes his Conversations for the Young 235 

Letter to Rev. Samuel Entwisle 236 

Is invited to a professorship in Wesley an University 239 

Publishes his Life of Wesley 239 

Compiles a Biblical and Theological Dictionary 240 

x\ppearance of the cholera in England 241 

Exercises at the City Road chapel 242 

Watch-night at the City Road 243 

Feeble state of Mr. Watson's health 244 

Letter to Mr. Edmondson 246 

Missionary Report for 1831 248 

Mr. Watson commences an Exposition of the N. T, 249 

Conference of 1832 at Liverpool 250 

Mr. Watson again appointed missionary secretary, . . 252 

His farewell service at City Road 253 

Hymn by Rev. Charles Wesley 255 

Mortality among the preachers 258 

Mr. Watson's last sermon 260 

Death of Rev. John James 26 i 

Mr. Watson compelled to desist from literary labours 262 

Rapid decline of his health 263 

Severity of his sufferings 263 



312 LIFE OF RICHARD V/ATSON. 

Page 

Notices of his last days 265 

His death and funeral 285 

Mr. Watson's personal appearance _ 287 

His mental character - 288 

Attainments as a scholar and theologian „ 288 

Manner of conducting public worship , 290 

Character of his ministry 291 

His qualifications as missionary secretary 294 

Attachment to Methodism 295 

His catholic spirit 296 

His unremitting diligence „ . . . , 296 

Qualifications as an expositor of Scripture 300 

His humility , , 300 

Disinterestedness and generosity 301 

Kmdness of spirit 302 

Conversational powers 303 

His fervent piety - 304 

THE END, 



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